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The hospital is reporting record high admissions of coronavirus disease – even more than the surge last November. About 18% of the admissions at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital have COVID-19.
Dr. Barbara Creighton, who has been attending many of them, says the surge is preventable.
“There is the disconnect. You know, we have businesses opening, school buses flying, restaurants going, and we have visitors happening, and yet we have our highest case rates. And so, we are like does anybody see this? This place is on fire with COVID.”
Dr. Barbara Creighton reports to the Greater Fairbanks Community Hospital Foundation Board about patients she is tending on the COVID floor.
With local virus transmissions rising exponentially, Fairbanks Memorial Hospital is reporting record-high admissions of Covid patients who tend to be younger and sometimes angrier than at the beginning of the pandemic, health officials said Friday.
Foundation Health Partners leaders provided a Covid-19 update, pointing out the record-high admission rate at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and describing changes in patient demographics.
Averaging at 10 and 11 new Covid patients per day this past week, the hospital had 12 Covid-19 patients on Friday and two more who were suspected to have the virus, said FHP Chief Medical Officer Dr. Angelique Ramirez.
âWe are really struggling right now; we have a record-high number of patients in the hospital,â Shelley Ebenal, FHP CEO and quality medical director, said.
Print article Although only about 43% of eligible Alaskans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, state data shows that the pace of vaccinations in Alaska has slowed significantly in recent weeks. The decline is part of a national trend: The seven-day average for vaccines administered in the U.S. fell by about 14% last week compared to the week before, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But in Alaska and locally in Anchorage the decline was even more significant. According to data on the state’s vaccine dashboard, there was close to a 50% decrease in the average daily vaccines administered in the state between last week and the week before. Anchorage data also showed a similar drop in vaccinations over the same timeframe.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Legal Newsline) – A couple’s reliance on a pharmacist for expert testimony in their medical malpractice lawsuit was a bad idea, the Alaska Supreme Court has ruled.
Justice Peter Maassen wrote the April 23 opinion for the court, which ruled a Fairbanks judge was right to toss the case of Marcie and William Beistline. A doctor’s decision to discontinue a medication caused a seizure, the Beistlines claimed, but the pharmacist was unqualified to back those accusations, the court ruled.
Defendants Bruce Footit and Fairbanks Memorial Hospital argued the Beistlines needed to find a doctor who was board-certified in the appropriate field to meet med-mal requirements passed by the state legislature.