Dunkle
Flu activity is picking up across the state, and Johnson Memorial Hospital staff are seeing it first-hand.
Right now, Indiana is currently experiencing “very high” levels of influenza-like illnesses, or ILI. As of last Friday, 11 influenza-associated deaths have been reported statewide this season, according to the Indiana Department of Health.
For the IDOH health district including Johnson County, emergency departments and urgent care centers reported about 8.3% of their total patients have come in with complaints of ILI for the week ending Dec. 2, an increase of nearly 3% from the week prior. IDOH’s system categorizes a complaint as ILI when a patient presents with a chief complaint of a fever of 100 degrees or more accompanied by a cough and/or sore throat, or complaining of having the flu.
When looking at just Johnson County, the percentage rises to 8.8%, data shows.
“We’ve seen that, over the last couple of weeks, flu activity in the area has definitely increased,” said Dr. David Dunkle, president and CEO of Johnson Memorial Health. “We’ve had multiple admissions from influenza. Honestly, I can’t remember ever having this many flu admissions in a flu season before.”
Dunkle has worked for JMH since 2003, and while he didn’t do in-patient work during the H1N1 flu outbreak in 2009, he still saw the numbers from that pandemic. The number of admissions this season is higher, he said.
There are anywhere between three and seven people admitted with flu symptoms every day. As of now, the number of people hospitalized with the flu is higher than the hospital’s COVID-19 admissions, Dunkle said.
The hospital’s primary care offices and Immediate Care Center have also seen an increase in people coming in with flu symptoms, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
Virus uptick expected
It was just a matter of time before flu activity levels in Indiana increased. Hospital officials knew they needed to be ready, Dunkle said.
It’s been tough for hospital staff to handle the level of flu and respiratory virus admissions because of staff shortages. While the hospital has worked hard to be as fully staffed as possible, the level of admissions is putting a strain on resources, Dunkle said.
“I credit our staff — our respiratory therapists, our providers, our nurses, all the other support services, like lab imaging, etc. — that are really working hard to take care of these patients,” he said.
The strain has reached the point where the hospital has had to go on diversion a couple of times over the last few weeks, Dunkle said. Diversion is a term for when a hospital requests ambulances take patients to other medical facilities because they don’t have an available bed.
JMH was most recently on diversion Monday night, but later went off diversion early Tuesday morning, he said.
“We went on diversion the first time on Thanksgiving,” Dunkle said. “It’s probably been just a couple of times since then, but it’s all due to this influx of respiratory illness.”
Several Indianapolis-area hospitals have enacted visitor restrictions because of high levels of flu activity. Franciscan Health hospitals in Indianapolis, Mooresville and Carmel enacted restrictions on Monday, as did all Community Health Network hospitals, including Community South.
Locally, there are no plans for JMH to implement additional visitor restrictions due to the increase in respiratory virus activity. That’s partly because JMH has kept in place some pandemic-era public health measures, such as a mask requirement, that were dropped at other area hospitals, Dunkle said.
Looking forward
Dunkle declined to comment on whether he thinks flu season will get worse as more of winter comes in. It’s hard to predict, he said.
“I feel that COVID has kind of thrown off the natural progression of some of the seasons because we went through a time where everybody was masked,” he said.
There is a combination of factors that have led to increasing flu admissions. For example, people are not masking up anymore and vaccine hesitancy is more prevalent, Dunkle said.
“We know that not as many people have gotten their influenza vaccines,” he said. “People are worn out with vaccines, and it’s unfortunate.”
This strain of the flu also appears to be more virulent, or severe, he said.
“It’s a perfect storm,” Dunkle said.
Two other respiratory viruses are also still going around: RSV and COVID-19. Last week, the hospital had an adult admitted with RSV, which usually affects children more severely, he said.
“This is the triple-demic that we’ve heard discussed,” Dunkle said.
Dunkle encourages people to practice good hygiene and hand-washing to help prevent the spread of the flu. He also encourages them to get vaccinated if they are not and to wear masks if they have respiratory symptoms.
“There’s just so many respiratory illnesses circulating right now. You have to be cautious,” he said.
