As COVID-19 continues to rise in the borderland, so do the demands at the hospitals.
The availability of the COVID-19 blood infusion treatment at the Hospitals of Providence has become a serious concern to some high-risk patients.
District one representative and Mayor Pro-tem Peter Svarzbein brought the issue to the table at Monday's city council work session.
Svarzbein spoke on behalf of a constituent who qualified for the treatment at THOP but was told he'd have to 18 days for an appointment when you're typically supposed to register within nine days of receiving a positive test.
“They [the constituent] did not get a response or an appointment. So after the nine days of when that treatment will be successful, they reached out to my office letting me know about the concerns with Providence and with the City of El Pasos's Public Health Department for that infusion center," said Svarzbein.
“It makes sense. The data shows that we’re going through a wave right now so those infusion treatments need to be increased as well," Svarzbein added.
During the meeting, local leaders responded right away, saying they’ve already spoken with this constituent and taken matters into their own hands.
“Since that issue was brought up, the Providence Memorial infusion facility they have expanded their services to seven days a week. So that’s one of the progress, one of the accomplishments over the weekend," said Public Health Department Director Angela Mora.
The Office of Emergency Management director Jorge Rodriguez also commented saying, "they did expand seven days a week but they’re also looking at a larger facility to increase the capacity for patients. We are also working with BorderRAC to get them additional infusion equipment so they can expand the capacity within the next several days."
Svarzbein continued to speak on the COVID-19 surge asking the community to be smart heading into the holiday week as we’ve been hearing and if you’re a parent, seriously consider masking your child up at school, as they are where the majority of cases are coming from at the moment.
KFOX14 reached out to the Hospitals of Providence, in addition to city leaders, to see how they’re responding to the staffing and capacity concern for the infusion treatments.
A spokesperson for the hospital said in the past three months, they have seen over 1,600 percent increase in patients requiring the monoclonal antibody infusion treatment.
Hospital representatives said Tuesday, they are working to expand capacity so it can double the number of infusions per day.
The monoclonal antibody infusion treatment does require a physician's order for the appointment to be made.
The hospital advises patients to not delay seeking care as the monoclonal antibody treatment cannot be infused after 10 days of the onset of symptom.
Sun City ER also provides treatment at both their locations. No appointment is necessary, it can all be done within the same day if the client meets the requirements for the treatment.
The Texas Divison of emergency management has a COVID-19 therapeutic map available online.
Here is a link to the Texas HHS therapeutics page that has information and availability.
RECOMMENDED: El Paso Zoo hosts free drive-thru COVID-19, flu vaccines
Sign up to receive the topmost interesting stories from in and around our community once a day to your inbox.