Hospitals Report Extreme Crowding

Over-capacity hospitals report difficult conditions

RSV, influenza and COVID-19 have overwhelmed the UNM Health System beyond what it experienced at the height of the pandemic, doctors said at a news conference yesterday. UNM has erected a tent in a hospital parking lot on Lomas Boulevard in Albuquerque to provide extra space for triage near the adult emergency room. All of the system’s hospitals “are and have been significantly over 100% of licensed capacity” and are experiencing “significant impacts on the acute-care delivery system,” said Dr. Steve McLaughlin, chief medical officer at UNM. At the 20-bed children’s emergency department, of 22 patients, 16 are on breathing tubes. “People are very sick and they are seeking out care in all of our hospitals throughout our city,” said Dr. Anna Duran, associate chief medical director at UNM Children’s Hospital.

Officials with large private hospitals said they are in the same predicament, coping with the worst influenza year in a decade and what some have dubbed the “tripledemic.” “Our hospitals remain well above capacity, our emergency rooms are packed and we are doing everything we can to take care of the community,” said Dr. Jason Mitchell, chief medical officer for Presbyterian Health Services. Dr. Vesta Sandoval, chief medical officer at Lovelace Health System, echoed the sentiment and noted “this is something that all the small facilities across the state are also experiencing and it has become exceptionally difficult to try and move patients...and to find the correct level of care.” Last week, Acting Health Secretary Dr. David Scrase said his team was keeping a close eye on whether New Mexico would need to re-enter “crisis standards of care,” a formal designation that acknowledges providers may make decisions under limited resources using criteria such as likelihood of survival. The doctors at yesterday’s news conference again encouraged New Mexicans to mask in group settings and asked those who have not obtained flu vaccines this season or had a COVID booster since before September to do so.

Santa Fe forest restoration project back in play

After a pause as the state battled what became its biggest wildfire ever, US Forest Service officials are again pushing forward with a proposed restoration project that includes prescribed burns near Santa Fe. The Santa Fe National Forest on Dec. 9 reinitiated a 45-day objection period for the final environmental assessment and draft decision notice for the Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project. The project has been in the works since stakeholders in 2016 formed the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition, and it proposes “mechanical and manual vegetation thinning treatments,” prescribed fire and riparian restoration on approximately 38,680 acres of the 50,566-acre planning area over the next 10 years. This afternoon, Acting Forest Supervisor James Duran is on the agenda for the Santa Fe Board of County Commissioners, whose members last summer grilled the feds about the plan and asked for an elevated level of review called an “environmental impact statement.” (The meeting is open to the public in-person at 2 pm, 102 Grant Ave. or online.) The agency temporarily paused all its planned prescribed burns in May and then formally withdrew the Santa Fe resiliency plan in late July. Residents impacted by the the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, which occurred after US Forest Service prescribed burn activities, have a long way to go. FEMA announced a new slate of meetings this week as part of a public comment period on rules for administration of federal assistance continues through Jan. 13.

General fund revenues heading up

New Mexico general fund revenues in fiscal year 2022 grew by 19.7% to $9.7 billion and are expected to grow to $10.7 billion—an increase of 11.4%—in fiscal year 2023 and to $12 billion the next year, according to the latest forecast from the state’s Consensus Revenue Estimating Group. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asserts the report is a reminder that all the state’s major revenue sources are expected to remain strong. “New Mexico today has the opportunity to reach never-before-seen heights through our continued and responsible investments in key areas like housing, healthcare, education and public safety,” the governor said in a statement. “Our fiscal success will enable us to double down on the investments we know are working and explore innovative new strategies that move the needle and move New Mexico up in the rankings.” Taxation and Revenue Secretary Stephanie Schardin Clarke said the forecast indicates “New Mexico is still in a solid position fiscally.” Oil and gas activity is expected to remain the primary driver in revenue growth, despite the recent drop in prices, with both severance taxes and royalties expected to climb, a news release from the department notes. The forecast, however, identifies risks including the war in Ukraine and other geopolitical factors that could affect the world oil market and lead to a recession next year.

COVID-19 by the numbers

Reported Dec. 12: New cases: 1,065 (includes the weekend); 653,285 total cases. The most recent report on geographic trends, dated Dec. 5, shows a 28.3% increase in reported cases over the prior seven-day period compared to the Nov. 28 report. Deaths: four; Santa Fe County has had 374 total deaths; 8,746; total fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 169. Patients on ventilators: five.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent Dec. 8 “community levels” map, which uses a combination of hospital and case rate metrics to calculate COVID-19 risk for the prior seven-day period, shows eight counties categorized as “orange”—high risk—for COVID-19, versus three last week. They are: Cibola, Guadalupe, McKinley, Otero, San Juan, San Miguel, Torrance and Valencia. Santa Fe County remains “green,” identifying lower risk. Twelve counties are “yellow,” with medium risk. Corresponding recommendations for each level can be found here.

Resources: CDC interactive booster eligibility tool; NM DOH vaccine & booster registration; CDC isolation and exposure interactive tool; Curative testing sites; COVID-19 treatment info; NMDOH immunocompromised tool kit. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. DOH encourages residents to download the NM Notify app and to report positive COVID-19 home tests on the app.

You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.

Listen up

The 11th episode of Littleglobe TV, “You Are Here,” features short videos, skits, memes, animations and live hosting by Santa Fe residents. Several shorts were created by participants in the Neighborhood Historian/Community Storytellers program that trained people in video recording, interviewing and other skills. Their short films tug on the heartstrings: a portrait of Santa Fe Trails bus driver Ed Montoya, by Doug Conwell; the tale of a Vietnamese woman who now calls Santa Fe home, by Terry Ngo; an exploration of community, by Kassia Howell, and others. Want to get in on the storytelling? A two-part mobile-phone production workshop beginning tonight offers training in creating audio and video with a smartphone.

Back on track

A Taos gallery owner who boarded an Amtrak train in Lamy, then survived a deadly train crash hundreds of miles down the line in Missouri, recounts his dramatic experience during the June accident and his ongoing recovery in a feature by the Kansas City Star. “I remember just a boom, a bang, and the train shaking,” Rob Nightingale, 57, told The Star. He had been awakened from a nap. “I looked out my window and all I could see was just brown dust—tons of dust—like the earth coming toward my window,” he recalled. The story is part of the newspaper’s months-long investigation into how changes in train companies’ business models have put lives in danger and disrupted rural communities. Nightingale still has trouble sleeping and trauma from the crash, but that has not stopped him from taking more trips by train. “In October, he once again rode the Southwest Chief to Chicago,” the story reads. “When he returned, people asked him how the trip was. ‘I told them it was fine,’ Nightingale said, ‘except I slept with my shoes and all my clothes on.’”

Chile on the Mississippi

New Mexican food in the heart of St. Louis gets a good review from Cheryl Baehr, dining editor and restaurant critic for the Riverfront Times, as she visits Taco Buddha, a new restaurant from chef Kurt Eller with inspiration from the Land of Enchantment and other global locales. Eller isn’t from here, but it’s part of his journey, he writes on the restaurant’s website. “Growing up, we would travel to New Mexico and I fell in love with the smell of green chile roasting in the fall, which was outside everywhere we went, permeating the air with a sweet, spicy perfume for the duration of the season,” he writes. In her review, Baehr praised the decor: “Above each table are pieces of living artwork: Canvasses with ferns peeking out of them like antlers give off a desert ambiance, and the wood-and-iron order counter adds to the New Mexico-influenced style.” (Though we’re not sure about the ferns in the desert idea.) But the restaurant’s version of queso with chiles from Hatch really hit the spot: “For someone whose love of Hatch green chiles borders on problematic (guilty!), infusing these spicy beauties into a ramekin of impossibly luscious cheese offers a pleasure beyond words. Think jalapeños in ballpark nacho cheese, only eating them on a mountaintop in Santa Fe while watching the famous hot air balloons as Georgia O’Keefe paints you a picture. That’s how good this tastes.”

Winter sizzle

It’s a winter wonderland this morning in Santa Fe and public schools are on a two-hour delay, but the National Weather Service says the storm is over and we can expect a partly sunny day with a high near 31. The forecast calls for breezy weather, with a west wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.

Thanks for reading! The (Substitute) Word learned that yesterday the first snow of the season came to Ireland’s shores and this guy played a beautiful canon on his cello to celebrate.