Last week I asked a very simple question: Why are Hospital Executives Lying to Missoulians?
That question pissed a lot of people off.
The reason for this is that I questioned the head of the Missoula hospitals. And I made it a point to say, once the new report is out on Monday, we’ll find out for sure.
Now the report is out. It’s the Aug. 23 report, and we’ll compare it to the Aug. 16 report.
This is the last thing the hospitals want us to do.
That question pissed a lot of people off.
The reason for this is that I questioned the head of the Missoula hospitals. And I made it a point to say, once the new report is out on Monday, we’ll find out for sure.
Now the report is out. It’s the Aug. 23 report, and we’ll compare it to the Aug. 16 report.
This is the last thing the hospitals want us to do.
Last week, Dr. James McKay lied to Missoulians.
“St. Patrick's Hospital in Missoula has no beds available, McKay said, adding that its intensive care unit is also completely full and bed availability fluctuates constantly.”
Let’s unwrap this lie.
For the week of Aug. 16, Community Medical had 57 non-covid patients, 7 covid patients, and 75 beds available.
For the week of Aug. 23, that same hospital had 55 non-covid patients, 6 covid patients, and 75 beds available.
So during the week when the hospital CEO said the hospital was full and out of beds, they actually reduced their patient count.
The CEO lied, saying his hospital was out of beds...but for two weeks, they had 75 beds available.
All of this information is available in the weekly DPHHS reports.
How about St. Pat’s?
For the week of Aug. 16, that hospital had 142 non-covid patients, 21 covid patients, and 63 beds available.
For the week of Aug. 23, they had 143 non-covid patients, 15 covid patients, and 68 beds available.
So for this hospital, we actually saw six fewer covid patients and five more beds available than the previous week.
It’s clear the hospitals in Missoula are not full. I wish the CEO of those hospitals would stop lying to us, saying they are full.
I wonder why he’s doing that? I suspect it’s probably got something to do with money.
It’s hard to trust health care folks when they lie to us. Right now they want to try and convince more people to take the vaccine.
And yet, the highest-ranking doctors in this city lie to us.
What else are they lying to us about?
No, covid has never been an issue here.
If you go back to the report from July 12, you’ll see that Missoula’s Community Medical Center had 49 patients, 3 covid patients, and 87 beds open.
Let’s go back to the report from January 5. At that point, Community Medical had 42 patients, 6 covid patients, and 75 beds available.
So in the span of 6 months, that hospital saw their covid patients double from 3 to 6, and their available beds ‘dwindle’ from 87 to 75.
That’s a real crisis, isn’t it?
On Monday, the Missoulian put a story out saying that over 75% of our ICU beds were full. But that’s misleading, as the state’s ten largest hospitals have 252 ICU beds between them, yet just 47 covid patients fill them. That means just 18% of the people in the ICU are there for covid. The other 82% are there for something else.
I am so sick of the fear mongering in the media, and I know you are too.
