Fewer COVID-19 patients at McHenry County-area hospitals

Quiet hallways. Smiling doctors and nurses. Sixteen months into a global pandemic, it seemed like an impossible scene for an intensive care unit at a hospital near a major population center.

But that was the case Wednesday in the ICU at Northwestern Medicine Huntley Hospital, which did not have a single COVID-19 patient.

Although other areas of the hospital still had a few COVID-19 patients who were not in critical condition, the quiet ICU showed just how far the hospital has come in fighting COVID-19 since March 2020 and even over the past six months.

The region composed of McHenry and Lake counties had 16 patients in the hospital, according to the seven-day rolling average reported Friday by the Illinois Department of Public Health. The number of hospitalizations has been declining or stable every day for a full month.

Hospitalizations in the region hit an all-time high when the average reached 370 in mid-November and reached a smaller peak in May when the average was 95, IDPH data shows.

“Certainly, we are seeing less cases than following spring break, when many people were traveling,” said Kim Armour, chief nurse executive at Northwestern’s Huntley campus.

Northwestern Medicine does not release the number of COVID-19 patients it is caring for at its Huntley, McHenry and Woodstock hospitals, which Armour said is because the numbers are constantly changing. However, she said, the progress is clear.

“The good news is we continue to see our vaccine rates moving,” Armour said. “[The vaccine] ensures [that] if you do get it, your symptoms are much less.”

Even as Illinois has reopened to almost normal activities and no longer requires masking in many situations for those who are vaccinated, COVID-19 cases remain low. Armour said this is proof that the vaccine works.

At Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, the situation is similar.

“We’ve seen a steady decline in the number of COVID-19 cases this spring, bringing hope and relief to our team members who have been on the front lines of this crisis for the last 16 months,” said Mary Roesch, Advocate Good Shepherd’s chief nursing officer.

Last Tuesday, Good Shepherd had three COVID-19 patients. That’s down from a high of 45 patients in September.

Mercyhealth Hospital and Medical Center in Harvard did not provide its numbers.

At Northwestern in Huntley, staff was prepared for the worst as the pandemic came in waves. The ICU hall once was filled with personal protective equipment. IV pumps and monitors were put outside rooms to minimize the number of times rooms with COVID-19 patients were accessed.

In the emergency department, hospital beds were stationed in open spaces in case rooms were filled. A conference room in the building’s basement was prepared to take patients, and Northwestern Medicine began thinking about how to use space at its Woodstock facility, which has not taken patients since 2017.

The building itself was prepared to deal with the deadly virus. Many rooms had the airflow reversed to take potentially contaminated air out of the room rather than cycling it through. Some emergency department rooms had a second room where doctors and nurses could transition between the contaminated room and open hallway to minimize airflow from rooms with COVID-19 patients into common areas.

Northwestern Medicine spokeswoman Michelle Green said the situation was most dire in spring 2020 and this January, when Illinois had its largest number of cases.

Medical personnel once were asked to be careful with how many cotton swabs they used, and hospital staff was asked to conserve masks as the nation and world dealt with a shortage of supplies. Masks, which normally are discarded between uses or patient checks, would be worn for hours or days until they were too soiled to use.

Now, every person who comes into the hospital gets a new mask. The beds still remain in the hall of the emergency room, but nurses at their work stations can safely work without wearing a mask.

The white hazmat-like suits medical personnel wore that resembled something a firefighter or astronaut would wear are gone. Instead, nurses wear gloves, gowns and goggles in addition to their mask.

“We are prepared and ready for the possibility of seeing COVID numbers coming up again,” Armour said. “You never say never, and we know there are different strains. What we have to talk about is preparedness.”

Although the hospital may feel normal, no one is ready to celebrate the end of the pandemic.

“While we’re encouraged by the trends, we know that this relief could be temporary,” Roesch said. “We are closely monitoring variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, but want to encourage each and every person to get vaccinated.”

At Northwestern in Huntley, staff remains ready for cases to increase. Although the hourslong line that appeared daily for COVID-19 testing in the parking lot is gone, the tent remains.

Technician Randy Uidl, a former firefighter hired by the hospital in December for COVID-19 testing, handles about 40 to 70 COVID-19 tests a day largely by himself. Many of the people coming to get tested need it in advance of their scheduled surgeries.

In the hospital’s lab, COVID-19 tests from patients still are being processed daily, although lead technologist Courtney Hill had no positive test results in her most recent record book.

Hill said it isn’t often she gets a positive test anymore. The Huntley lab in which Hill works ran more than 13,000 tests for COVID-19 from its inpatient and emergency department populations between March 2020 and March 2021. The Northwestern system in McHenry County processed more than 35,000 tests from its patient population alone in the first year of the pandemic.

The goal now is to get people vaccinated and to keep up habits such as hand-washing that were emphasized in the past year, Armour said.

“This vaccine is helping us to manage the health and safety of all of us,” Armour said.

She pointed to PGA golfer Jon Rahm’s recent case of COVID-19 as evidence that the vaccine makes the virus manageable. Rahm recently was vaccinated but not fully vaccinated and still tested positive for the virus several times, forcing him to withdraw from a tournament he was winning. A month later, he returned to the course and won the U.S. Open.

“[The vaccine] does not give us 100% protection, [but it makes] it much more comparative to the flu,” Armour said.

Health care workers are hoping people get vaccinated to help minimize the spread and symptoms from the virus, which will help keep hospitals empty.

“COVID-19 remains a threat, and the best way to protect yourself is through vaccination,” Roesch said.

President Joe Biden set a goal in the spring to get at least one shot to 70% of Americans by July 4. The nation will fall short of that goal, but Illinois is expected to hit that mark just before Independence Day, even as vaccination rates drop and a segment of the population hesitant about taking the vaccine becomes the next target of health departments.

On NBC’s Today show Wednesday, Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the president, said the delta variant of the virus is very concerning for those who are unvaccinated, but those who are vaccinated have less to worry about.

“They have to start paying attention to it now because if they are unvaccinated, they are at risk,” Fauci said. “Whereas those who are vaccinated can have a great Fourth of July. You could just do all the things you want to do on the Fourth of July if, in fact, you’re vaccinated.”