Arkansas hospitals prepare as COVID-19 hospitalizations surge

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Arkansas broke its record for COVID-19 hospitalizations on Friday afternoon with 113 people hospitalized for the virus, according to the Department of Health.

At CHI St. Vincent in Litte Rock, one doctor said they’ve stockpiled supplies for weeks in case the number of hospitalizations increase.

Market Chief Medical Officer Dr. Douglas Ross said they have seen a resurgence in the number of COVID-19 patients since the state began reopening. And their staff is prepared for even more, he said.

"The number of COVID positive patients in the hospital is nowhere exceeding our capacity to care for those patients safely," Ross said.

However, Dr. Ross said if the number of hospitalizations continues to grow, there will be cause for concern.

"If the hospitals and ICU's start to be overrun with volumes of patients, then our level of concern is going to change," Ross said. "But we're nowhere near that level right now."

On Friday afternoon, CHI St. Vincent had seven COVID-19 hospitalizations, UAMS had eight, Jefferson Regional Medical Center had six.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Roddy Lochala at Unity Health said those numbers could change at any moment.

"The problem is that I tell our medical staff it's kind of like a mountain range, we don't know," Lochala said. "We've had one spike, we don't know if this next spike is bigger than the last one or smaller than the last one."

Officials for both Unity Health and CHI St. Vincent said their other concern is people who need basic treatment not coming to the hospital due to fear of the virus.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson said on Friday that it is too early to determine if Arkansas is experiencing a second peak.