Jan 12, 2024 By Karen Mansfield 3 min read

Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

In this 2022 file photo, a woman comforts her husband who had COVID-19 in the intensive care unit at WVU Medicine Uniontown Hospital. A recent state report found that Fayette County ranked among the top five counties in Pennsylvania for hospitalization rates due to the virus.

Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

A nurse in Washington Hospital’s critical care unit administers medication to a COVID-19 patient. A statewide report released Thursday detailed the impact COVID-19 had on hospitals.

Pennsylvania hospitals lost $8.1 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic, and over the course of the pandemic, 11% of hospital patients who contracted the virus died, according to a report released Thursday by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council and the Hospital and Health System of Pennsylvania.

The report provides a look at the toll that the pandemic took on Pennsylvanians and their communities, and the impact on Pennsylvania’s hospitals. It documents the loss of billions of dollars, thousands of patients’ lives, and healthcare workers who left the industry in large numbers.

The joint study shows the death toll between March 2020 through December 2022 was 52,322, with patients averaging 8.3 days per admission.

The report also examines how Pennsylvania hospitals responded to the pandemic and the challenges they continue to face.

“Throughout the pandemic, Pennsylvania hospitals stepped up as leaders to care for and protect their communities,” said PAH President and CEO Nicole Stallings.

Staff shortages ballooned during the pandemic, with hospitals reporting average statewide vacancy rates of more than 30% at the end of 2022, including shortages in critical positions such as registered nurses, nursing support staff, and medical assistants.

Other key findings from the report showed:

Fayette County ranked among the top five counties for hospitalization rates per 10,000 residents, with 253.8. Washington and Greene counties were below average, with 184.6 and 181.2 hospitalizations, respectively.

Over the course of the pandemic, 11% of hospital patients who had COVID-19 died. The mortality rate varied over time, peaking at 16.3% in early 2020 and reaching 14.6% in late 2021 before falling to 5.5% as of late 2022.

Mortality rates were higher for patients ages 65 and older, male, white, and living in areas where 10% to about 25% of the population lives in poverty.

The overall hospitalization rate was 196.7 COVID-19 hospitalizations per 10,000 Pennsylvania residents from March 2020 through December 2022.

At its worst, the death rate for hospital patients between 65-84 of age with COVID-19 exceeded 20%. It reached nearly 30% for those over 85. The death rate for patients aged 25-44 never topped 5%.

Hospitals reported they lost $8.1 billion from January 2020 through December 2022, including $1.3 billion in increased staffing costs related to hiring additional staff and staffing emergency operation centers, and $679 million spent on additional supplies and equipment.

The health systems suffered an estimated $5.3 billion in revenue losses during COVID-19, mostly from pausing elective surgeries and procedures.

“We know COVID-19 had seismic effects on our communities, and we are still grappling with understanding what those effects are. From schools to stores to sports clubs and movie theaters, many of the basic ways that Pennsylvanians lived changed. But nowhere was this more dramatic than on the health care system. Like other businesses, hospitals and health care providers had to manage risk, while simultaneously bearing responsibility for caring for our sick,” said Dan Frankel, Chairman of the Democratic Health Committee.