Where is our local hospital, Mercy Regional Medical Center, with respect to transparency and sharing information about the current pandemic?
Why has it chosen to not comment on nor share statistics?
We don’t know how many patients it has tested, how many are sick or anything. We can only imagine that it has shared data with San Juan Basin Public Health, but how do we know?
At least SJBPH has started providing some basic data on COVID-19 cases. But it would be a far cry better if we really knew if Mercy’s cases were included.
How many have been tested in the county? How many had underlying conditions? SJBPH doesn’t cover this data.
Recent studies suggest many more have coronavirus than initially thought, just asymptomatic. And a recent medical report states that up to 90% of hospitalized patients for coronavirus have underlying conditions.
Where are our stats? This would all go a long way in allaying fears and help the city, county and individuals in understanding when we can safely phase our way back to business (as “usual” or not, pending).
A recent article in the Herald discussed the additional ventilators Mercy received, yet Mercy had no comment on how many they already had, if they were using the ones they had – silence. Why? Is Mercy hiding something? And yet other regional medical centers are furloughing staff due to the lack of business with elective surgeries postponed. Just what is going on?
Jim RothwellDurango
