For Texas hospitals, a new COVID-19 surge looms over burned-out workforce
AUSTIN, Texas - For mental health support related to COVID-19, call the state’s 24/7 toll-free support line at 833-986-1919. You can also reach a trained crisis counselor through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 800-273-8255 or texting 741741.
Cortney Stout, an emergency room travel nurse, said she would often work 12- to 13-hour shifts during her last assignment in San Antonio, sometimes going the whole day without eating or having time to go to the bathroom. But for most of November, she saw signs that the threat of COVID-19 was easing up around her. The hospital where she worked stopped requiring her to wear an N95 mask and COVID-19 cases seemed to dwindle, giving her and other health care workers a temporary reprieve.
The relief didn’t last for long.
"Just as things seem to get better and (cases) start easing off, it’s just like someone dropped a bomb of (COVID-19), and the next thing you know you have dozens of people coming in throughout the day with COVID again," Stout, 27, said.
Stout is one of hundreds of thousands of health care workers in Texas reeling from repeated pandemic surges in the span of almost two years. The workforce is now preparing for what comes next as the omicron variant fuels a new wave of COVID-19 cases across the nation.
FILE - ICU nurses place positive COVID-19 patient on ventilator.
Although some Texas hospitals are better prepared than they were at the beginning of the pandemic — thanks in part to vaccines becoming more widely available and the gained experience treating COVID-19 patients — staff morale still stands on shaky ground, according to hospital officials in Texas’ largest metro areas and across the state. Hospitals are bracing for not only another surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, but also for a renewed burden on an already burned-out and depleted workforce.
"We know what (COVID-19) looks like. Certainly it may change a little bit, but we've got the script written in terms of how to provide care for COVID patients," said Carrie Kroll, vice president of advocacy, quality and public health at the Texas Hospital Association. "The issue is just volume and what we'll see in terms of hospitalizations and whether or not we'll be able to provide the capacity needed."
As COVID-19 hospitalizations in Texas have crept up this month to around 3,000, hospital officials say the numbers do not yet mirror the levels seen in the state’s last spike, which was spurred on by the highly contagious delta variant. Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, president and CEO of Harris Health System, a hospital system in Harris County, said about 40 people are currently hospitalized for COVID-19 in his facilities — about double the amount from last week. (The system reached a high of 190 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the last surge.)
"In terms of actual numbers it’s manageable, (but) that's not the concern," Porsa said of recent hospitalizations. "The concern is the fact that the rate of increase is really ramping up. So there is a very good chance that by the end of this calendar year (or) at the beginning of (the) new year, we may be back in the middle of a huge COVID surge, and that is concerning."
Staff at Methodist Hospital say the latest COVID surge is overwhelming, and they're urging more people to get vaccinated.
Porsa and other hospital officials have expressed no doubt that health care workers will work to meet the moment — but the question is whether there will be enough of them to balance hospital demand, especially as more patients not sick with COVID-19 have been coming in to receive delayed care.
Balancing the needs of COVID-19 patients with other medical emergencies has also presented a problem, Stout said.
"There would be days where we had people who were having heart attacks sitting in the waiting room because we didn't have a bed or room or anywhere to put them," Stout said.
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