Five Florida Hospitals Issue Dire Plea for COVID Vaccination, Masks

Some 75 physicians, nurses, and top executives from five competing hospitals in Florida’s Palm Beach County issued an emotional plea Monday for people to get vaccinated and wear masks, noting that ICUs and other beds are filling up with COVID-19 patients.

“We are exhausted, our patience and resources are running low, and we need your help,” said Rupesh Dharia, MD, an internist at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, during an early morning press conference. He was flanked by masked colleagues in scrubs and white coats who stood in support before the start of their shifts.

“Providers are overworked, teams are understaffed,” added Lee Fox, MD, chief of staff at Jupiter Medical Center. “Healthcare workers consistently put themselves at risk when taking care of patients with COVID-19. It’s been a long 2 years and, quite frankly, we are all exhausted, both physically and psychologically.”

The speakers emphasized that while some vaccinated individuals have been sick enough to require hospitalization, none have been sick enough to require care in the ICU, and generally have had milder illnesses.

Many of the speakers noted that it is important to get more people protected against COVID-19 for the sake of children; hospital beds are increasingly filling up with teens who are eligible for vaccination but didn’t get it, as well as children under 12 who are not yet eligible.

“We need to protect our children and give them the safest environment possible in our communities, so that they can go to school and to their activities without getting sick, or without worrying or getting their beloved parents, teachers, coaches, and other adults sick,” said Sarrie Katz, MD, an outpatient pediatrician at Jupiter Medical Center.

“Our office has been overwhelmed by the amount of phone calls [about] kids with COVID. Their parents are scared, they don’t know what to do,” she added.

Katz urged those eligible to get the vaccine “as soon as you can,” to wear a mask when indoors, and to encourage children to wear masks. “These are the only tools that we currently have available to help prevent the spread of this disease,” she said.

The surge in COVID cases has also impacted elective surgery scheduling at some hospitals. For example, a patient may need surgery to have a tumor removed, but it’s held up a week or two because there isn’t an ICU bed available, said David Lickstein, MD, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Jupiter Medical Center. “This affects all of us,” he added. “Now more than ever, we need your help. Wear a mask, get vaccinated, and do your part.”

Jose De Olazabal, DO, a pulmonologist and chief of staff at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, said his teams are seeing “patients get sick very, very quickly, from coming in without oxygen to needing high-flow oxygen within a matter of hours, to being in the intensive care unit and potentially on a ventilator.”

“The real concern here is that we’re seeing a younger patient population, previously fairly healthy and predominantly unvaccinated,” De Olazabal continued. “Lots of times patients tell me they wish they had taken the vaccine,” he noted, adding that it’s “a very, very important preventative tool in front of us.”

Teresa Urquhart, CEO of Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, noted that despite the best bed management capacity plans, their hospital units have had to expand to additional areas.

Top-level executives from St. Mary’s Medical Center, Good Samaritan Medical Center, and Palm Beach Children’s Hospital in West Palm Beach were also present during the press conference and took the microphone to echo the doctors’ pleas.

Those gathered for the news conference represent acute care facilities that are often “combative competitors,” Urquhart said. “We stand here united in the fight against COVID-19.”