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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Enough beds in intensive care units have been the center of attention in Colorado hospitals, but having beds won’t matter if there aren’t enough nurses or doctors to treat intensive care patients.
This is the situation of more and more Colorado hospitals. According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, 24% of hospitals predict a staffing shortage in the next week.
Cara Welch of the Colorado Hospital Association says healthcare centers started seeing staffing shortages around the same time COVID-19 cases exploded in Colorado.
“We’re sadly seeing more of them getting sick right now or needing to be quarantined and it’s really the result of this increased community spread that we’re seeing statewide,” Welch says.
According to Welch, hospital staff do not get sick from work, instead they are exposed to the virus when not on time for daily tasks like grocery shopping or picking up the kids from the hospital. school.
Welch says, “They’re within their community and so we’re seeing this level of community spreading really starting to impact our staffing levels at our hospitals.
Unlike other professions struggling with sick employees, hospitals cannot bring in additional nurses or doctors because the problem occurs statewide.
“Our nurses and providers in our hospitals are really essential where they are and probably don’t travel as much as they used to,” Welch tells us.
UCHealth in El Paso County says they haven’t experienced a shortage yet, but if that happens they say they would redeploy nurses from outpatient clinics or other areas to care for patients hospitalized. Welch predicts that the same strategy could be implemented in other hospitals.
UCHealth and Welch both say the best thing Coloradans can do to help these workers is to listen to the advice of the Public Health Department: wear a mask, practice social distancing, and stay home if you feel sick. .
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