Hospitals report ‘critical’ shortage of staffed beds with hundreds of frontline workers out
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Some of the Hawaii’s largest hospitals are being hit by what officials call a “critical staffing shortage” as COVID keeps hundreds of staff members off the job.
On Monday, amid an ongoing COVID surge, at least 1,400 frontline caregivers were out of work because they are either infected with COVID or were exposed. That’s up 40% from last week.
The staffing shortage is impacting everyone who needs a hospital.
While the physical beds are there, the doctors and nurses needed to staff them are not.
On Monday morning, hospitals across state were slammed.
“We have 97 patients sitting in our emergency rooms waiting for a bed,” said Hilton Raethel, head of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii. “And that’s a very high number.”
Raethel said it’s gotten to the point where some facilities are struggling to care for all the patients ― close to 90% of whom aren’t sick with COVID.
“Queen’s Punchbowl and Queen’s West are two of the hospitals that are very, very short on staffing right now,” Raethel said. “As is Wahiawa General. As is Kona Community Hospital.”
On Monday afternoon, Queen’s Medical Center-West Oahu announced it was experiencing staffing and capacity issues. The facility declared an internal emergency when the number of patients exceeded the available beds, setting into motion a series of protocols designed to address the situation.
Queen’s says there were 112 patients at the hospital with a capacity of 104 beds.
There were also 58 patients in the emergency room.
Lt. Gov. Josh Green says a shortage of personnel is making it nearly impossible to staff some units. It also means people are waiting longer for care.
“You have to have the lab tech and the nurse and the clerk and the respiratory therapist and the doctor and if a couple of people are out it’s that many more hours it might be delayed,” he said.
An emergency request made for 950 traveling healthcare workers from the mainland still has not been approved by FEMA.
In the meantime, the Healthcare Association of Hawaii has pulled the trigger to bring in about 250 nurses this weekend.
“We just made the decision that we can not afford to wait any longer given the shortage of personnel in the state,” Raethel said.
He says if FEMA doesn’t pay for the traveling staff, Hawaii hospitals would be responsible for covering the costs. If all goes as planned those 250 frontline caregivers from the continent will start work Jan. 17.
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