Central Oregon doctors are finding it difficult to change the minds of unvaccinated residents, despite the rise in COVID-19 cases, the contagiousness of the delta variant and hospitals filling up.

“People are set in their ways,” said Dr. Jessica Morgan, Praxis Health High Lakes medical director. “They’re not trusting in the science, and that’s the biggest concern I hear.”

St. Charles serves as the hospital for eight counties, Crook, Deschutes, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake and Wheeler. Out of the 46 intensive care unit beds staffed, 42 beds are occupied, according to the Oregon Health Authority hospital bed capacity by region dashboard. The big concern is that among the three counties, only Deschutes County has higher than a 70% vaccination rate for those 18 and older, leaving a swath of residents who are unvaccinated, according to the state COVID-19 dashboard.

“As the only Level II trauma center in the region, we can’t divert patients,” said Lisa Goodman, St. Charles Health System spokeswoman. “If we don’t have beds immediately available, we’ll typically board patients in our emergency department, transfer them within the system to another St. Charles hospital or to a hospital outside of the region.”

The hospital’s surge plan includes some elasticity that calls for canceling elective surgeries and procedures to free up caregivers and beds, Goodman said. But that’s not ideal. There’s already a backlog of about 2,500 elective surgeries at St. Charles’ four hospitals from canceled surgeries, Goodman said.

The more COVID-19 patients that the hospital gets, the fewer patients it can see overall. Most of the patients coming in with COVID-19 symptoms that St. Charles has seen in the past two months are unvaccinated, said Dr. Douglas Merrill, St. Charles Bend chief medical officer. Those patients are coming in sicker and younger, Merrill said.

In July, the hospital had 12 patients in its intensive care unit. Two of them were vaccinated and may have been immune-compromised, high-risk patients, or attended indoor gatherings and exposed themselves to the virus, according to the data provided by the hospital.

“Anything is possible,” Merrill said. “The issue is if you have that many people exposing themselves, they serve as a petri dish for the virus that turns into something far more virulent. It is undoubtedly going to get worse.”

Looking at the number of cases over the past 16 months, St. Charles sees a lot of similarities with past surges and now, said Mike Johnson, St. Charles Health System senior data scientist. But how long this current surge lasts, is anyone’s guess, Johnson said.

It’s a situation that’s not unique to Central Oregon, Merrill said. In a conference with hospitals across the state, many are having to use emergency department beds for sick patients until a bed opens up on a medical floor because capacity is stretched, Merrill said.

“We’re thinking because we have a high percentage of vaccinated people in the older population, it’s coming from our younger population that is unvaccinated,” Merrill said. “The delta variant seems to make them come in sicker than what we saw originally.”

“The American health care workforce is exhausted.”

There are two key tools available to squash the virus, masking and the vaccine, said Dr. Cynthia Maree, St. Charles Health System medical director of infection prevention services. Because of the attention the rise in cases received in recent weeks, there has been a slight uptick in the number of vaccinations in the community, Maree said.

Deschutes County showed a 0.7% increase in new vaccinations this week, compared to the week before, according to the state data. Last week the county reported it gave 210 vaccines, said Morgan Emerson, Deschutes County Health Services spokeswoman.

Crook County had a 1.3% increase in the number of vaccinated this week over last, and Jefferson County saw a 1.1 % increase, the data show.

“We’d love to see that trend continue,” Maree said. “Now is the time. Schools will start soon. Get your kids vaccinated; that’s how we can stop the spread in our community and stop the number of patients coming in.”

St. Charles also is authorized to use a monoclonal antibody treatment that helps COVID-19 patients at risk of more serious illness reduce the risk of severe illness and hospitalization. With the delta variant in 80% to 90% of the cases in Central Oregon, the treatment has been put to use, Maree said.

Vaccines work, said Morgan at High Lakes Bend clinic. COVID-19 cases are affecting the entire health care system as people who go to the hospital emergency room for a fracture or a heart attack might have to wait now because the hospital is so backed up.

“They’re so backed up and there’s no room,” Morgan said. “When I see patients sick with COVID-19, I don’t have a lot of tools, so I send them to the emergency room.

“The more I think about this the more I realize that when you’re making the decision to get vaccinated or not, you have to weigh the risks with the benefits. The risks are minimal when compared to the risk of dying from COVID.”

Deschutes County Health Services is offering a free, walk-in vaccination clinic for anyone ages 12 and older. Those that get vaccinated can receive a $25 local gift card and be entered to win 1 of 5 $100 gift cards from a local small business. For more information, call 541-699-5109. Free vaccination clinics are: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the Redmond Library, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday  Aug. 9 at the Sisters Fire House and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday Aug. 10 at the La Pine Chamber of Commerce. 

The Jefferson County Public Health is offering walk-in COVID-19 vaccines every Monday through Friday and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 20 at the Central Oregon Community College Madras campus. For more information call 541-475-4456.