KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On the Monday morning University of Kansas Health System media call, doctors stressed the importance of keeping strain off the healthcare system.
A community member asked the doctors, "If I have a heart attack or stroke, is there a bed for me?"
Chief Medical Officer Steven Stites took a crack at answering the question.
"...Yes. We will work to get you that bed and the whole community will work to get that bed," he said. "But what our message on Friday was is that it may be delayed."
Stites referenced a call with all area hospital leaders where each shared that their respective facilities are starting to see fewer beds available as COVID-19 cases rise in Kansas City.
"We don't want you to have that be delayed because those are what we call time-sensitive diagnoses," Stites went on. "The longer you wait, the more heart tissue that you lose, the more brain tissue you lose."
He emphasized that he is not trying to use scare tactics but that it's important to wear masks and get vaccinated against the virus.
"Look, here's our situation," Stites explained. "Your hospitals in Kansas City, when we went through our call last week on a Friday, we were all really full. There were only a few ICU beds left. So the answer is right now, yeah. But if this continues to grow in our city and we look like Springfield and we're overwhelmed and we don't have the beds for any of these COVID-19 patients, we won't have beds for everybody else as well."
He summed it up in the fact that COVID-19 cases have repercussions that spread through the entire healthcare system, and that's what doctors are most concerned about.
"It takes a simple act of kindness (wearing a mask) to help keep this house, our hospital open, our good capacities available and ready to take on those who are sickest and need us," Stites said.
