Tallahassee Reports reached out to officials at Capital Regional Medical Center (CRMC) and Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (TMH) seeking the answers to two questions: what are treatments for COVID patients, and what are the most prevalent preexisting conditions for COVID patients under 50?
Trey Blake, MD, MHA, Chief Medical Officer at CRMC provided information on CRMC’s treatment plan for COVID patients. According to Blake, CRMC is using remdesivir for the majority of patients. A common treatment regimen is a mix of Remdesivir, steroids, tocilizumab, and convalescent plasma from COVID survivors. Some patients also receive nebulizer medications, blood thinners, and vitamins.
According to Blake, CRMC is not using hydroxychloroquine at this time.
“The scientific community has concluded that hydroxychloroquine is unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19 and that the benefits do not outweigh the risks,” he noted.
TMH, on the other hand, has chosen to treat patients with hydroxychloroquine. According to Dean Watson, MD, Chief Integration Officer at TMH, TMH uses hydroxychloroquine based on the Henry Ford Health System study which found that the drug reduced mortality rates for COVID patients.
In addition to hydroxychloroquine, TMH also treats patients with Remdesivir, convalescent plasma, Actemra (tocilizumab), Vitamin C, Vitamin D, zinc, and statins. For patients with pulmonary issues, TMH uses Decadron (dexamethasone) and “proning”—turning the patient over onto their stomach to improve oxygenation.
Blake and Watson also provided information on the most impactful preexisting conditions for COVID patients under 50.
According to Blake, “Preexisting factors that favor poorer outcomes with COVID infections are lung disease (asthma – COPD), heart disease (CHF), chronic kidney disease, cancer, and obesity. These same factors also have negative effects on our infected elderly population.”
According to Watson, the main preexisting conditions are obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.
As of August 1, in Leon County, 80 people were hospitalized for COVID-19. Tallahassee Reports updates Leon County COVID numbers here.
What Treatments Do Local Hospitals Use for COVID Patients? added by Lexie Pitzen on
View all posts by Lexie Pitzen →
Why is Uf Shands, Gainesville not using these medication on my husband who is fighting for his life.
CRMC is definitely about “the money.” Maybe their billing has been taken over by an independant financial consortium… but a friend went to their Emergency room last fall with atrial fibrillation, and bronchitis. They done lab tests with diagnosis, gave medication and held them for observation for another 10 hours before letting them go home. They billed the insurance company over $28,000…they only paid $3,200. The front line people done a great job…but geez $2,000 an hour?
Hydroxychloroquine, a Z-Pack, Steroids and Lysine saved my friend’s life.
Off topic:
OMG 93.3 AM show totally lost without Bobby Mac.
Bring Mr. Mar back to take Bobby Mack’s place. It will be cool to hear Mar and Tish fight out their right and left tendencies.
Another leftist will totally flush the show. Bring Mar back.
Preston can I come back home?
Just a quick note to everyone thinking this is about money: Most hospital payments are based on diagnosis-related group or DRG. What this means is that each patient admitted with a particular condition, e.g. COVID-19, gets a set amount of money from insurance providers. That money can go to whatever is involved in the patient’s care, including provider services, diagnostic tests, drugs, etc. So to say that TMH is offering a cost-effective strategy is only correct if someone is paying cash for that hospitalization (which is exceedingly rare). With insurance, the patient would likely pay the exact same amount regardless of treatments used. In fact, CRMC is probably taking a bigger financial hit by offering remdesivir since they do not get paid extra for using it. Kudos to them for using a drug with known benefit despite increased cost. If I were them, however, I would stop using tocilizumab as it did not show benefit in a recent trial.
have always preferred TMH to CMRC. Missing success-number facts? Young reporter & older highly paid hospital bureaucrat interviewees. The Tallahassee tradition for now 200 years. We are the shamans get outta here kiddo!
Very interesting that you consider a U.S. News & World Report ranking of #28 out of 315 Florida hospitals “dismal.” And not saying TMH is the best hospital out there or anything, but they are recognized nationally by U.S. News & World Report as a High Performing Hospital for COPD, Heart Failure, and Knee Replacement surgery.
I would like to see our hospitals get out of the business of local politics
I think they could be doing a lot of other things that are more beneficial to their hospitals than attending the Chamber of Commerce junkets in Sandestin and Amelia Island shame on them!
Wasn’t the TMH board close to Scott Maddox?
I think both hospitals could use new CEOs that have a focus on medicine instead of marketing. And that’s my two cents worth.
My faith in TMH is shaken – but then again it’s a mediocre hospital that is not recognized nationally for any specialty and is ranked a dismal #28 in the state.
CRMC is much scarier – if you’ve ever worked there, even doing rotations during medical training, you wouldn’t go there. .
Interesting now we know that the two hospitals we have are using different approaches. But it seems the most important detail has been left out. Which hospital is having the most success??? Why was that little piece of info left out?
That would be nice to know.
I think it is crazy that TMH is using a drug (hydroxychloroquine) to treat COVID19 patients especially knowing that the drug causes heart problems in patients. So my thing would be, if I take the TMH route and live will my heart be damaged? As for the patients in Tallahassee especially the younger patients were they at TMH or CRMC?
As I remember hydroxychloroquine didn’t work. So again why is TMH deciding to use it? Is this a Republican’s thing? Are we experimenting on patients now with drugs that have been proven to not work?
I am thinking that TMH is using a “facts and circumstances” approach to determine the best treatment plan based on the patient’s current condition and underlying co-morbitities. Unfortunately, everything is so polarized now that many just pick a position based on other factors. As stated above TMH seems to be, in part, basing decisions on the Henry Ford Health System Study. https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30534-8/fulltext
Despite all of the negative reporting on hydroxychloroquine, studies have shown it to be effective if administered early. It’s certainly not a cure all. It won’t won’t bring critically ill patients back from the brink of death. But it can lessen the severity if administered early and does appear to increase the survival rate. It’s also a fraction of the cost of the newer medications that are largely experimental or not fully vetted yet. Not sure why you’d want to try to blame Republicans for something here when the primary goal is survival and this drug seems to make the virus more survivable.
Is there information on how many people have been admitted to each hospital vs how many have died? Please add to the article.
I just wish there was not such a political aspect to the pandemic.
People are dying because other people want the leftists to take the WhiteHouse, the Senate, and the House.
Disgraceful.
If you haven’t seen “Plandemic” because it was banned by Youtube, Fakebook & others, here’s a link to the 26-min. documentary:
https://www.watchuncensored.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/aNjeT1G6iGTh.mp4
Decide for yourself.
Watched Plandemic back in May and, deciding for myself, did not find it credible. Should not have been banned as it now provides some sort of conspiracy theory mystic to those in the public less inclined to research such issues.
Glad to see that TMH has taken a very reasonable and open approach. The Henry Ford Health System Study, while an observational study (not subject to the full rigors of a randomized trial), had a large study size (2500+) with actual hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The results were very promising, although no one seems to report that the hydroxchloroquine, in combination with azithromycin, seem to have the best results. Glad to see that they are also utilizing remdesivir, which has shown promise in trials but is more expensive. Dexamethasone, another cheap drug, seems to be effective depending on the case presentation. No evidence (at least at this time) of any pre-exposure prophylaxis with any of the above.
“mystique” not “mystic”
People are dying because they are not physically distancing, not wearing masks ,& being out & about . They are infecting themselves by pool parties, large social gatherings, & coughing without coughing into their elbow or shoulder or crook of arm. Democrats are not one parry where they march in step with each other. There is no conspiracy of Democratic theory around COVID-19 & it is the President who refused to take the the impending danger as a hoax & limited it to Chins. I can only hope that more people take this pandemic seriously & wear those masks & physically distance themselves from others. No matter what party you belong to is not wearing a mask more important than accidentally infecting someone? There are people out here who have respiratory issues & hypertension, & diabetes who do all they can to take care of themselves only to die alone in a hospital with family unable to be with them. Too many people think only of themselves @ forget their responsibilities to others in the community. A mask is Uncomfortable it death is permanent.
People are dying because they are not physically distancing, not wearing masks ,& being out & about . They are infecting themselves by pool parties, large social gatherings, & not coughing into their elbow or shoulder. Democrats are not one parry where they march in step with each other. There is no conspiracy of Democratic theory around COVID-19 & it is the President who refused to take the the impending danger as a hoax & limited it to Chins. I can only hope that more people take this pandemic seriously & wear those masks & physically distance themselves from others. No matter what party you belong to, is not wearing a mask more important than accidentally infecting someone? There are people out here who have respiratory issues & hypertension, & diabetes who do all they can to take care of themselves only to die alone in a hospital with family unable to be with them. Too many people think only of themselves @ forget their responsibilities to others in the community. A mask is Uncomfortable it death is permanent.
An effective but largely unused international treatment is the CytoSorbant blood filter which greatly reduces the cytokine storm that comes with COVID. Now approved for emergency use it actually does work. It is now on use in about a dozen countries. The US process will catch up. If you are going down for the count ask your doctor about it. It might save your life.
The differences you see are the stark contrast between corporate run healthcare vs private run healthcare. Know the difference when you choose a provider………….do your homework people …….
I know where I’ll be going if I need treatment….TMH
No money to be made on hydroxychloroquine. Remdesivir? Yeah, you can mark that up.
I bought Zinc pills from Walmart in April.
200 50mg pills for $4.
Take one every day with some tonic water (natural quinine) for an immune boost. That’s 88¢/bottle.
(Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional.)
This is very good to have two hospitals in Tallahassee using two different treatment plans as they both seem to have seen on average the same amount of Covid-19 patients. This will be a good study group how these affect those in warmer climates and younger age groups.