The number of patients at local patients in hospital with COVID is at an all-time high. Centra Health has 192 total patients in its three hospitals. 170 of them are at Lynchburg General. 20 are ICU patients, 15 are ventilated. Centra says it has exceeded the previous peak surge totals by 60 or more. Centra is no longer reporting vaccination status. They say their volumes exceeded previous levels and we found that the reporting processes that worked in the past were not able to keep pace.
Here is more information from Centra:
Centra Updates for January 26, 2022
• Centra’s inpatient COVID census for 01.26.22:
o 192 Total Patients: 20 are ICU patients, 15 are ventilated
o 170 Lynchburg General Hospital
o 19 Southside Community Hospital
o 3 Bedford Memorial Hospital
• We reached a COVID inpatient census of over 200 at the beginning of the week with little variance since.
These numbers are all time highs for Centra and exceed our previous peak surge totals by 60 or more.
• You will notice on the COVID dashboard on centrahealth.com, along with the numbers reported today,
vaccination status has been removed. Historically, Centra relied on a combination of manual and
automated processes to track and report on our Covid patients. For most of the pandemic, these
processes worked well to both inform the public and guide hospital operations. During the recent
Omicron surge, the hospital volumes exceeded previous levels and we found that the reporting
processes that worked in the past were not able to keep pace. Moving forward, we will be relying on a
more automated process as our gold-standard for reporting purposes.
• As the demand for COVID testing has continued to increase, opportunities for testing have been made
available:
o Centra testing event every Wednesday from 1-4pm and every Saturday from 8-1pm for the
month of January, at Lynchburg Family Medical Residency Practice; 2323 Memorial Avenue,
Suite 10, Lynchburg. Testing is for anyone 16 years or older who has symptoms or has had
close contact exposure.
o Centra testing event every Saturday in January, from 8-1pm at Bedford General Surgery; 1615
Oakwood Street, Suite D, Bedford. Testing is for anyone 16 years or older who has symptoms
or has had close contact exposure.
o Virginia Department of Health is offering testing on the following dates and times:
▪ 1/26/22: 12:00-3:00 at Lynchburg Health Department. Rapid PCR and send off PCR
available
▪ 1/27/22: 10:00-12:00 at 4009 Murray Pl, Lynchburg, 24501. Drive through testing, send
off PCR only available
▪ 2/3/22: 1:00-4:00 at Lynchburg Health Department. Rapid PCR and send off PCR
available
▪ 2/10/22: 1:00-4:00 at Lynchburg Health Department. Rapid PCR and send off PCR