BREMERTON — Health officials said Monday the COVID-19 outbreak at St. Michael Medical Center in Bremerton has now been linked to at least 45 confirmed cases.
In a press conference Monday afternoon, Kitsap Health Officer Gib Morrow said that 30 staff members and 15 patients have been infected as of noon Monday. That count is expected to grow as the hospital continues testing staff and patients.
On Friday afternoon, the state Department of Health announced an outbreak had spread to more than 30 cases among staff and patients at the 260-bed Bremerton hospital — formerly known as Harrison Medical Center — which is part of the CHI Franciscan system.
The Kitsap Public Health District was notified on Aug. 4 that a hospital employee had tested positive for COVID-19, Morrow said. At that time, health district investigators found no close contacts from that case identified at the hospital.
But other case investigations led the Kitsap health district to link five COVID-19 cases to the initial case the following week. On Aug. 14, the health district declared an outbreak at the hospital and subsequently recommended testing for staff and patients in the affected hospital unit.
Last week, more positive tests indicated the virus had spread to multiple units at the hospital, and health officials recommended the hospital start ongoing testing, expand screening for staff, place restrictions on visitors, and limit movement between units.
“I think this is just an example of how insidious and tricky and difficult to recognize this virus is,” Morrow said. “And that's the reason every single one of us needs to behave as if we are infected and everyone around us is.”
COVID-19 cases linked to the outbreak are limited to the Bremerton campus and have not spread to the Silverdale hospital, said Michael Anderson, chief medical officer of CHI Franciscan.
Anderson said the outbreak has affected three units, and patients who had been discharged from those units have been notified. The hospital is not admitting new patients to the impacted units, though patients already admitted will continue to be "evaluated and assessed, he said.
In response to the outbreak, CHI Franciscan has reinstated restrictions on visitor access to St. Michael hospital, in addition to expanding testing for patients and staff. The hospital plans to test every staff member in the facility and will provide ongoing testing to those in affected units, Anderson said.
“We are committed to working with the state department as well as public health until we can show this outbreak has been completely resolved,” he said.
St. Michael hospital had already been testing for new patients who were admitted for elective surgeries or other conditions unrelated to COVID-19, along with screening staff members for symptoms when they came to work. A daily symptom questionnaire is what first alerted hospital officials to the staff member linked to the outbreak, Anderson said.
While the Kitsap health district continues to conduct case and contact investigations, state infectious health experts will be coming to St. Michael’s this week to access the facility and determine any issues in the hospital’s procedures.
"Outbreaks in healthcare-associated circumstances are unfortunate events," said Dr. Scott Lindquist, state epidemiologist for communicable diseases for the Washington State Department of Health, "but this is not the first hospital to have one of these outbreaks, and we feel confident we'll be able to help them control this."
Austen Macalus is the Kitsap Sun's social services reporter — covering health care, homelessness and how programs are serving those in need. He can be reached at austen.macalus@kitsapsun.com or 360-536-6423.
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COVID-19 outbreak at St. Michael Medical Center linked to 45 cases - Kitsap Sun
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