With COVID-19 hospitalizations spiking, Gordon looks to bring in additional medical personnel
With COVID-19 hospitalizations spiking, Gordon looks to bring in additional medical personnel
By Tom Coulter
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via Wyoming News Exchange
CHEYENNE – With COVID-19 hospitalizations reaching an all-time high in Wyoming this week, Gov. Mark Gordon announced Wednesday that he has authorized federal stimulus funds to bring additional medical staff into the state.
Through a partnership between the Wyoming Department of Health and the Wyoming Hospital Association, the state plans to bring in temporary medical workers to assist the state’s hospitals, which have seen a spike in COVID-19 patients.
As of Tuesday, Wyoming was up to an all-time high of 178 hospitalizations. Two weeks ago, that number was at 104.
“This funding will help ease the strain on our hospitals and health-care workers, who have been working tirelessly to provide care to increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients,” Gordon said in a statement. “As hospitals around the region face the same issues, our hospitals cannot plan on transferring patients out of state. I want to ensure Wyoming maintains its ability to provide our residents access to the treatments and care they need.”
Through the effort, the Wyoming Hospital Association will evaluate staffing levels across the state and consult with state health officials on those needs. They will then work with a medical personnel agency to help the health-care facilities in need of assistance.
“We are grateful to the governor for recognizing the imminent need for additional staffing around the state,” said Eric Boley, president of the Wyoming Hospital Association, in a prepared statement. “Medical staff across the state are strained and exhausted. There is an immediate need to bring in additional help to ease the burden shouldered by our health-care professionals.
“This move by the governor is important and is giving us critical resources allowing us to find and retain medical personnel to support our hospitals in their fight against COVID.”
At Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, which was up to 42 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 on Wednesday, about 25 hospital staff have recently been quarantined due to virus exposure in the community, hospital CEO Tim Thornell said in an interview.
“Right now, we’re seeing a high point of patients, with 42 in the hospital today, and we’re seeing a high point of staff being out to quarantine because of something that’s happened outside the walls of the hospital, so not a good combination,” Thornell said Wednesday.
Thornell applauded the move by the governor, which he said will help to backfill sick staff and give a break to nurses who have been working “overtime, all the time.” CRMC officials have already submitted a request for the additional staff whenever it becomes available.
He added the $10 million being deployed from the state’s federal stimulus money should help Wyoming compete with other states as the price for travel nurses has risen substantially since the pandemic began.
“Places all over the country that are experiencing surges right now ... are desperate and just paying exorbitant amounts of money to have someone come in and help, so that’s what we’re competing with,” Thornell said of the funding. “This will definitely help us be competitive. Otherwise, it’s tough to be able to pay the rates they’re asking for right now.”
Some details in the plan remain to be finalized. The specific group that the state will work with to bring in more medical personnel was not yet available as of Wednesday, according to a spokeswoman for the Wyoming Department of Health.
Though a definite time frame for the backup’s arrival also had yet to be determined, Thornell said his hope was to have the first couple of new staff arrive “in the next seven to 10 days.”
“It probably won’t be our full complement of people that we’d like to have here, but we think we’ll see the first of them coming in in that time frame,” Thornell said.