As local health officials gear up for the possible peak period of COVID-19 cases, conservation of supplies will be crucial.
While much attention has been given to personal protection equipment and other medical supplies, hospitals are now trying to conserve medication that may be needed to treat COVID-19 positive patients.
“That’s one of the real reasons that we’ve been trying to explain and trying to encourage health facilities to stop elective procedures because a lot of them are actually done with propofol and so if you can not do those procedures, that frees up that medication for a potentially seriously ill COVID patient,” he said.
Copple says three anesthetics in particular – versed, propofol and fentanyl – are seeing shortages nationwide. Some hospitals are down to just a day’s supply.
“We’ve (the medical community) got to be responsible and do the right thing here and also re-look at how we’re using these products,” he said.
Cases have flat lined a bit locally, with Riley County reporting no new cases over the weekend, before its 21st case was announced late Monday morning. Copple attributes a lot of that to early steps taken locally by some of the retirement communities in particular, like Via Christi Village, Meadowlark and Stonybrook.
“They are pretty much in lock-step about the constraints that they’ve taken to protect their residents. To this point it’s been very effective,” he said.
Copple joins News Radio KMAN daily at 7 a.m. for the COVID-19 update.
