Please read the message below from Dr. Rob Phillips, sent to all Houston Methodist employees and physicians on July 18, 2022.
We continue to see an uptick in COVID-19 patients in our hospitals as the omicron BA.5 variant takes root in our community. Today we have 312 inpatients. Interesting note: about half of these patients came to Houston Methodist for reasons unrelated to COVID-19 and were unaware they were positive for the virus until they were tested during the admission process.
Some in the community are using the rising number of cases to spread misinformation about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Thankfully, we have the science to refute their unfounded and dangerous claims. While the current vaccines are not working as well against the current variants (especially BA.5), they are doing a remarkable job of preventing severe illness and keeping people out of the hospital. A group of researchers estimates that in the 10-month period between December 2020 and September 2021, in the United States vaccines prevented 1.6 million hospitalizations and 235,000 deaths in persons over age 18! That’s amazing! Here’s some more proof. The last time waste water of the COVID-19 virus was this high in Houston, we had more than three times as many patients in-house. With almost 28,000 vaccinated employees, we have a robust data set that allows us to shed light on just how effective these vaccines have been, too. It has been well over six months since one of our 28,000 vaccinated employees was sick enough to be hospitalized. The last time one of our 28,000 vaccinated employees was sick enough to be admitted was on Jan. 10, 2022. The vaccines work at preventing severe illness and death! And even better yet, both Pfizer and Moderna are working on omicron vaccine boosters.
Please do your part!
Today, we have 402 employees who report testing positive for COVID-19. We must each do our part to reduce the spread so that our resources can best be spent taking care of patients! Remember to always wear a mask in public areas and in patient-facing settings. I strongly urge you to also wear a mask in administrative areas as well as in the patient care areas. We are also getting reports of employees who are not wearing a mask in our gyms. Please remember to mask up if you are working out at a Houston Methodist gym. Keep your colleagues and yourself safe!
I want to also strongly urge leaders to not provide food in meetings for the time being. If you’re meeting in person, if possible, move your meetings to virtual.
With community spread on the rise, please be careful! We’re all tired of wearing our masks everywhere, but if we truly want to keep the patient at the center, we must be ready to make a few sacrifices, and that includes wearing a mask in public and staying healthy ourselves.
Remind visitors to wash their hands!
I’ve received feedback from some of you telling me you’re observing visitors to COVID-19 rooms not washing their hands when they leave the room. If you see this happening, please say something! It’s imperative that anyone who enters a COVID-19 patient’s room wash his or her hands when they leave. If you see visitors who don’t wash their hands when leaving, please remind them it’s in theirs and their loved one’s best interest if all visitors wash their hands. For some light reading, here is a poem that I published early in the pandemic in 2020.
We continue to see an uptick in COVID-19 patients in our hospitals as the omicron BA.5 variant takes root in our community. Today we have 312 inpatients. Interesting note: about half of these patients came to Houston Methodist for reasons unrelated to COVID-19 and were unaware they were positive for the virus until they were tested during the admission process.
Some in the community are using the rising number of cases to spread misinformation about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Thankfully, we have the science to refute their unfounded and dangerous claims. While the current vaccines are not working as well against the current variants (especially BA.5), they are doing a remarkable job of preventing severe illness and keeping people out of the hospital. A group of researchers estimates that in the 10-month period between December 2020 and September 2021, in the United States vaccines prevented 1.6 million hospitalizations and 235,000 deaths in persons over age 18! That’s amazing! Here’s some more proof. The last time waste water of the COVID-19 virus was this high in Houston, we had more than three times as many patients in-house. With almost 28,000 vaccinated employees, we have a robust data set that allows us to shed light on just how effective these vaccines have been, too. It has been well over six months since one of our 28,000 vaccinated employees was sick enough to be hospitalized. The last time one of our 28,000 vaccinated employees was sick enough to be admitted was on Jan. 10, 2022. The vaccines work at preventing severe illness and death! And even better yet, both Pfizer and Moderna are working on omicron vaccine boosters.
Please do your part!
Today, we have 402 employees who report testing positive for COVID-19. We must each do our part to reduce the spread so that our resources can best be spent taking care of patients! Remember to always wear a mask in public areas and in patient-facing settings. I strongly urge you to also wear a mask in administrative areas as well as in the patient care areas. We are also getting reports of employees who are not wearing a mask in our gyms. Please remember to mask up if you are working out at a Houston Methodist gym. Keep your colleagues and yourself safe!
I want to also strongly urge leaders to not provide food in meetings for the time being. If you’re meeting in person, if possible, move your meetings to virtual.
With community spread on the rise, please be careful! We’re all tired of wearing our masks everywhere, but if we truly want to keep the patient at the center, we must be ready to make a few sacrifices, and that includes wearing a mask in public and staying healthy ourselves.
Remind visitors to wash their hands!
I’ve received feedback from some of you telling me you’re observing visitors to COVID-19 rooms not washing their hands when they leave the room. If you see this happening, please say something! It’s imperative that anyone who enters a COVID-19 patient’s room wash his or her hands when they leave. If you see visitors who don’t wash their hands when leaving, please remind them it’s in theirs and their loved one’s best interest if all visitors wash their hands. For some light reading, here is a poem that I published early in the pandemic in 2020.
Executive Vice President & Chief Physician Executive, Houston Methodist
President & CEO, Houston Methodist Physician Organization
Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College
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