Employees at COVID-positive hospitals may work amid staff shortages, the North Dakota governor said. Is it safe?

As North Dakota hospitals reach 100% capacity as the state’s coronavirus cases continue to rise, Gov. Doug Burgum has approved a surprising solution to the understaffing: enabling workers in the asymptomatic health workers who tested positive for COVID-19 to continue working in the COVID-19 units of hospitals.

In a statement issued on November 9, Governor Burgum declared that “our hospitals are now under enormous pressure”, adding in the same day Tweeter that COVID-19 cases now represent 14% of hospitalizations. The governor followed with another Tweeter That said, “As requested by hospitals to address the issue of staffing, a state health ordinance will allow asymptomatic and COVID-positive healthcare workers to work in the COVID unit of a licensed facility,” provided the precautions are taken as recommended by the CDC. “

Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on alleviating staff shortages that have reached ‘crisis’ level include allowing health workers with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 who are sufficiently well and willing to work but who did not meet all the criteria for return to work ”, while limiting their contact with severely immunocompromised patients.

Governor Burgum explained in his statement that the state “is allocating additional resources for rapid detection to healthcare workers to help identify cases more quickly and put patients back in the hands of staff.”

Several people have expressed concerns about the decision on social media, including a Twitter user who wrote: “This almost guarantees more doctors and nurses will catch COVID and spread it to their patients. Your hospitalization rate will double in 2 weeks. “

However, some experts say it’s not as risky as it might sound, given the precautions, including wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), that healthcare workers already follow. “It’s hard to deal with initially, but it really makes sense given the need they have,” says Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, head of quality and patient safety at Wexner Medical Center in Ohio. State University, at Yahoo Life. “The benefits here are huge because of the need for staff.”

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Gonsenhauser says hospitals in North Dakota are probably “completely overcrowded.” In general, he adds, “When we start to grow beyond our normal capacity in hospitals, it’s a really tough challenge, especially for nurses. This is what really motivates this decision. He added, “It’s one of those risk-benefit situations that we do all the time” in hospitals.

While Governor Burgum noted in his statement that hospitals have hired mobile nurses from other areas and suspended elective surgeries, this is not enough “with a significant number of patients”.

With the state’s new protocol, asymptomatic health workers would only work in COVID-19 units. “The risk to the patient is therefore very low,” Gonsenhauser said. “And as long as the tests are correct – and there is no reason to believe it isn’t – the risk to the supplier who tested positive for COVID … is probably not really increased. significantly … because of continued work.

Dr Purvi Parikh, allergist and immunologist for the Allergy and Asthma Network, agrees, telling Yahoo Life, “If they’re only in COVID-19 wards, the risks to patients are low. However, they are at risk of infecting other staff and colleagues who may not yet be infected, especially in common areas of hospitals.

Parikh says the unprecedented move serves as a “grim reminder that we are heading into a difficult winter if we cannot contain the cases.”

She notes that the country is in a “very difficult situation” as several areas are “booming” of COVID-19 cases. “It puts stress on healthcare workers and resources [since] hospitals cannot afford to have critical staff for at least two weeks at a time, ”Parikh says. “No one wants to take these steps. But if all the health workers are absent, there is no one to look after the patients either. So I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision to make.

For the latest news and updates on the coronavirus, follow to https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those with compromised immune systems continue to be at greatest risk. If you have any questions, please consult the CDC‘the sand WHO resource guides.

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