MUSC Health biweekly COVID-19 report (September 2)

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Sept. 2, 2021) – At MUSC Health, the safety of patients, families, care team members, students, faculty and staff remains the number one priority. The MUSC Public Affairs and Media Relations (PAMR) department issues regular COVID-19 updates on Monday and Thursday of each week. If a federal or state holiday falls on a Monday, then a report will be issued the following day. Please read the report in its entirety; information can change quickly.

The Path Forward / Recovery

COVID-19 VACCINATION UPDATE

Q&A 15

Dr. Scheurer answers all our burning questions as related to the coronavirus and vaccination.

MUSC Health has vaccine appointments for all eligible individuals age 12 and up. Eligible individuals can visit muschealth.org/get-vaccine to make an appointment; while appointments are encouraged, walk-ins are welcome at all MUSC COVID-19 vaccine clinic locations. View information and a video with directions on how to schedule a vaccination appointment. The community is encouraged to monitor muschealth.org for COVID-19 vaccine availability criteria, updates and FAQs.

For more information related to public, community vaccination sites operated by MUSC Health throughout the state, please visit vaxlocator.dhec.sc.gov/. Appointments are encouraged, but walk-ins are welcome.

Homebound individuals who need in-home COVID-19 vaccination services should contact DHEC’s COVID-19 vaccine information line by calling 1-866-365-8110. Please note that community members should not directly contact the vendors. All calls must be routed through the DHEC COVID-19 vaccine information line to access this program.

MUSC Health vaccination administration data is available upon request.

MUSC Health COVID-19 Vaccination Expectation for all care team members

All MUSC Health leaders and care team members are now required to have the COVID-19 vaccine. Religious and medical exemptions may apply for some care team members. All new care team members should receive a single dose vaccine prior to starting work or the first dose of a two-dose vaccine prior to starting work. The second dose must be completed within three weeks as a condition of employment. As of July 1, more than 99.9% of MUSC Health care team members have complied with this policy. MUSC Health has established this policy for the safety of our care team, our patients and patients’ families and visitors.

FOR UPDATED DATA:

Steep Slope

As COVID cases shoot up another 25% in Tri-county compared with previous week to another record high, scientist looks ahead to potential peak.

The MUSC COVID-19 Epidemiology Intelligence Project is a digital dashboard that provides leading indicators related to the COVID-19 epidemic to enable informed decisions. Current situation assessments for MUSC Health – Charleston (Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties), MUSC Health Florence, and MUSC Health Lancaster divisions are available on this site.

HELPFUL WEB LINKS FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC:

General information

Information about testing options

MUSC Virtual Urgent Care

COVID-19 vaccination

MUSC COVID-19 mobile diagnostic testing

MUSC Health offers COVID-19 testing in hospital, clinic and other locations. Patients are encouraged to communicate with their providers through MUSC MyChart should they need testing services. Current turnaround time is approximately 24 hours for test results. A full list of testing information is available at this website: musc.co/testing.

MUSC Children’s Health After Hours Care and Pediatric Emergency Department are receiving significant COVID testing requests, which can be a strain on staff as they work to serve sick patients and emergency needs. If possible, please share with your audiences that while the pediatric After Hours Care and Emergency Department are great spots for most of a child’s medical needs, when it comes to COVID-19 testing, we are encouraging families to take advantage of community testing locations right now.

MUSC Health, in partnership with the state legislature, is also rotating mobile screening and collection sites in rural and underserved areas throughout the state, for both walk-up and drive-through patients, which are advertised locally in partnership with municipalities, community organizations and businesses. Prescreening is not required and there is no cost to patients. Patients will be contacted within two days with the results of their test, if not sooner. Patients are asked to bring photo identification and an insurance card if they have one. The CARES Act requires MUSC to bill insurance providers if patients do have insurance. Patients may email drivethruresults@musc.edu if they have questions regarding their results. If they do not have an email address, they may call 843-985-8888.

Sites may close early or operate with reduced hours if weather conditions become unsafe for care team members or if volume exceeds site safety capacity.

Information related to Healthy Me — Healthy SC free, statewide mobile testing sites for each week can be found here.

MUSC Health antibody testing

MUSC Health is offering voluntary COVID-19 serologic testing through MUSC MyChart and results will be available within 48-72 hours. Testing is available at select locations in the Charleston, Florence, and Lancaster divisions and by appointment only. Repeat testing, for those who test negative, will be offered no more than every 30 days for qualified candidates. The cost of the test will be billed to insurance carriers. Based on the recent CARES Act, insured patients will not have an outstanding balance for this test. It is important to make sure individuals and the media understand what the test results mean.

COVID-19 related stories for follow-up

Seeking Signal

As Charleston area hits new COVID high, scientist looks for “signal of the curve” – indication of when surge may end.

Delta Mutations

Mutations of Delta variant show up in testing at Medical University of South Carolina.

Pregnancy Protection

One group that is especially lagging in COVID-19 vaccination also happens to be at higher risk of severe illness – pregnant women.

Pandemic Record

Charleston Tri-county records highest weekly COVID case average since start of pandemic. Scientist describes what to expect next.

COVID in Kids

Children can develop neurological disorders from COVID-19 and, for some, they can be life-threatening.

Basic stats / COVID-19 positive cases

Previously reported data points, such as the total number of COVID-19 community screening tests completed by MUSC Health- Charleston and the number of positive cases determined via those tests, the number of telehealth screenings, total number of specimens collected at various mobile sites, or the number of COVID-19 positive MUSC care team members are available upon request. Information related to vaccinations is at the top of this release.

Number of COVID-19 inpatients with active infection (MUSC Health-Charleston): 62
Number of COVID-19 inpatients with non-active infection still in the hospital (MUSC Health – Charleston): 69
Total number of COVID-related patients (MUSC Health – Charleston): 131
- MUSC Health monitors these numbers to determine that we have current and future capacity in terms of health care providers, supplies, ventilators and PPE. Reported numbers are consistent with the modeling and expectation that MUSC Health will have appropriate resources to manage these patients.
- Of the 131 COVID-related inpatients currently in the MUSC Health-Charleston location, 45 are in MUSC Health COVID-19 intensive care, with 16 of the 131 total inpatients currently receiving ventilator care for disease progression.
- Of the 131 inpatients at the MUSC Health – Charleston location, 8 pediatric patients are in the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. Six pediatric patients are in pediatric intensive care with 2 of those patients receiving ventilator care for disease progression.
- Unvaccinated vs. vaccinated inpatient status update: More than 75% of current inpatients were unvaccinated upon admission.
- MUSC Health – Charleston has reopened its COVID-19 care unit in the University Hospital. Additional units may be activated as volumes increase.
Please note that MUSC Health hospitals often have full ICUs. This may require our teams to care for patients in other units of the hospitals until beds in the intensive care units become available. This can vary hourly, in COVID and non-COVID times. It is accurate to say we are busier than usual right now.

For specific information about MUSC Health Florence or Marion Medical Centers, please contact Kim Geiger at geigerki@musc.edu.

For information about MUSC Health Chester or Lancaster Medical Centers, please contact Ashley Shannon at shannona@musc.edu.

For information about MUSC Health Columbia Medical Centers Downtown or Northeast and MUSC Health Fairfield Emergency and Imaging, please contact Tina Creighton at creightt@musc.edu.

For information about MUSC Health Kershaw Medical Center, please contact Karlin Ferguson at fergukar@musc.edu.

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About MUSC

Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is home to the oldest medical school in the South as well as the state’s only integrated academic health sciences center, with a unique charge to serve the state through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and nearly 800 residents in six colleges: Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. MUSC brought in more than $271 million in biomedical research funds in fiscal year 2020, continuing to lead the state in obtaining National Institutes of Health funding, with more than $129.9 million. For information on academic programs, visit musc.edu.

As the clinical health system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest quality patient care available while training generations of competent, compassionate health care providers to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Comprising some 2,000 beds, more than 100 outreach sites, the MUSC College of Medicine, the physicians’ practice plan and nearly 275 telehealth locations, MUSC Health owns and operates eleven hospitals situated in Charleston, Chester, Fairfield, Florence, Kershaw, Lancaster, Marion and Richland counties. In 2021, for the seventhconsecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. To learn more about clinical patient services, visit muschealth.org.

MUSC and its affiliates have collective annual budgets of $4.4 billion. The more than 20,000 MUSC team members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers and scientists who deliver groundbreaking education, research, technology and patient care.