GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Local hospitals say they’re having to get creative to accommodate patients amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.
“We have converted some of our different spaces, you know, we may have an open therapy space that we now converted to an area where we can care for some of our outpatients,” Laura Hieb, chief nursing officer and a senior VP at Bellin, said. “We have different parts of the organization rooms that we have available to us that might hold patients for a period of time, before we can get them into an actual room.”
The Wisconsin Hospital Association says there are over 1,600 COVID-19 patients and only 44 ICU beds available statewide.
“I think locally all the health systems continue to be extremely busy,” Bellin emergency physician Dr. Brad Burmeister said. “We have some record number of people in the hospital.”
Burmeister says Bellin has even doubled-up rooms when patients are not infected with COVID-19.
“Some days, we use beds in our emergency department to keep people there prior to moving people upstairs,” he said.
The strain of now having to figure out different workarounds is something hospitals are facing every day.
“The team is working daily, it’s actually hourly, working on where do we put patients, and how do we make sure we get the right patient in the right bed with the right care team at their side,” said Hieb.
This comes as hospitals are experiencing another issue – a worker shortage. It means some are doing a job they may not normally be tasked to do.
“We have a lot of folks who may be in roles like mine that have a license as a nurse, and we may be flexed over to other parts of the organization to help out,” Hieb said.
Bellin says, behind the scenes, it has an adaptable staffing team that works daily on moving and shifting people around throughout the organization, to help in areas where they can.
Health care systems recommend getting vaccinated, and seeing your health care providers on a regular basis. They say this will help prevent health issues from possibly becoming emergencies.
Comments