Michigan Medicine cancels surgeries, chair pleads for help from Whitmer & CDC during COVID surge

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (FOX 2) - Michigan Medicine has started canceling surgeries as more people are being hospitalized with COVID-19.

 According to Michigan Medicine Surgery Chair Justin B. Dimick, the cancelations are to accommodate the "rapidly accelerating" amount of COVID-19 hospital admissions.

Dimick posted a tweet pleading for leaders to do something about the case surge and lack of new restrictions.

The hospital released a statement about the canceled surgeries:

"Similar to many health systems across the state and metro region, Michigan Medicine has experienced record high emergency room and admission volumes for both COVID and non-COVID care this week resulting in extremely high hospital occupancy. Due to rising occupancy and forecasts for continued high demand for emergency care and admissions, Michigan Medicine has had to make the difficult decision to reschedule a small number of scheduled surgeries late this week and next week in order to maintain safe occupancy levels. We are constantly monitoring the evolving situation and will make further adjustments to ensure scheduling aligns with our staffing and hospital room availability with safety of our patients and staff always remaining our highest priority."

Last week, Michigan Medicine implemented new hospital visitor restrictions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 as cases continue to spike.

The state has seen a surge in hospitalizations in recent weeks.

Hospitalizations across the state are doubling every 12-14 days for three consecutive weeks.

According to health officials, the one-week absolute increase was just under 1,000 patients, the highest absolute change in hospitalizations since the surge when the pandemic started last spring.

READ MORE: Deaths climb, cases spike as state works to vaccinate more people

Health officials said hospitalizations were up about 45% in the past week. This is the sixth consecutive week these have increased, and all regions have had an increase in hospitalizations in the past week.

COVID-like illness currently accounts for 9.3% of emergency department visits

The state also reported that the number of COVID-19 patients in ICU units has seen accelerated growth, increasing 41% since last week.

Six of the state’s eight regions have 25% or more of their ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients.

Related: What's leading Michigan's COVID-19 case rates to highest in the nation?

The 40-49-year-old age group has seen the greatest increase in average daily admissions and percent change over the past week.

Since Feb. 28’s low, the 50-59 group has had the greatest daily average of admissions and percent change.

Last spring, many hospitals canceled procedures and other care that was immediately necessary to have more space and resources for patients with the virus.