Plethora of COVID cases testing hospitals facing critical shortage of intensive care personnel

MIAMI – Throughout the 18 months of the pandemic, hospitals have faced a competitive job market, but the further increase in COVID hospitalizations is straining South Florida hospitals facing critical staff shortages in intensive care units.

These are highly trained nurses and specialist physicians who provide minute-by-minute care to patients facing high-intensity situations during critical stages of COVID-19, putting their lives at risk.

“Nurses, critical care nurses, respiratory therapists… We are struggling to recruit these staff,” said Dr Marc Napp, Chief Medical Officer of Memorial Healthcare System, at a press conference.

The US Department of Health and Human Services followed the shortages with instant reports from 205 Florida hospitals. The data doesn’t identify hospitals by name, but it showed that as of Monday, 12 hospitals had reported a “critical understaffing” and 15 expected shortages. Meanwhile, the Florida Hospital Association reported Monday that 60% of hospitals expect a critical staff shortage in the next seven days.

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Heather Havericak, executive director of Broward Health Medical Center, called the current situation a “perfect storm.”

“We’re all fighting for that same pool of nurses and that pool is getting smaller and smaller,” Havericak said.

Baptist Health reported adding 300 traveling crisis staff who will be arriving this week to join existing frontline staff as the shortage had critical care nurses caring for one or two patients by caring for of three.

Martha Baker, trauma nurse and president of Jackson Healthcare Union SEIU 1991, said caring for COVID patients is hard work – especially when they have to turn them over on their stomachs so they can breathe. She said it may require the strength of a six-person team. She also said that in her four decades of experience, she had never seen such a shortage and such aggressive recruiting.

“You talk about big bucks. If a nurse makes an average of $ 40 an hour in Jackson, she was hired for $ 120 to $ 140 an hour, ”Baker said.

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In July, the Flash report from the Kaufman Hall National Hospital, which analyzes data from hundreds of hospitals across the country, showed that hospitals in the southern region, which includes Florida, were facing increased spending from nearly 3% year over year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released strategies to alleviate staff shortages in March, recommending that hospitals cancel all non-essential procedures and visits and impose strict rules to prevent staff from becoming infected. Hospitals in South Florida are starting to implement sweeping measures. The Jackson Health System is preparing to impose a vaccination mandate on all employees and has asked them to get vaccinated by August 23.

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“It’s a really big challenge we’re facing right now, and the only thing we can hope for is this push that’s peaking here very soon and we’re getting back to a more normal environment,” Carlos Migoya, Jackson Director General of Health, Gov. Ron DeSantis told Gov.Ron DeSantis in a virtual meeting Thursday.

Most experts see the shortage of critical care personnel as a symptom of a public health crisis that is forcing South Florida residents to be proactive about the use of face masks, social distancing, washing of clothes. hands and vaccination. DeSantis opposes face mask and vaccine mandates, but he lobbied for priority access for the elderly at the start of the vaccination campaign.

“The current hospitalizations and the rate of growth continue to be extremely troubling,” Mary C. Mayhew, executive director of the Florida Hospital Association, recently said in a statement. “But the vaccines work! The fact that less than 3% of current hospitalizations are from nursing homes and long-term care facilities shows that the state’s focus on immunization and protection of the elderly and most vulnerable in Florida has worked. “

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Doctors in Broward and Miami-Dade counties said the majority of new COVID patients treated in intensive care are now younger and unvaccinated. David Espino, a 17-year-old football player at TRU Prep Academy, was hospitalized for 10 days at Broward Health with COVID. He developed pneumonia and his mother said she regretted not having him vaccinated earlier.

“We are seeing people in their twenties, thirties and forties being hospitalized with this virus and becoming very sick,” Miami-Dade County Chief Medical Officer Dr Peter Paige said Thursday afternoon during a press conference. “Much of this could have been avoided if people had been vaccinated. “

Havericak totally agrees. She sees this as the solution to hospital challenges by balancing the needs for bed capacity and critical care staff.

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“It won’t end until the community is behind us,” she said. “We need the community to get vaccinated. “

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