Hospitals Report Struggling For Enough Staff To Deal With Pandemic

Oklahoma hospitals are dealing with another week of record-breaking COVID-19 patients.

The State Health Department said 781 people are in the hospital with the virus as of Tuesday and hospitals said the real struggle is having enough staff.

LaWanna Halstead, a registered nurse and Vice President of Quality with the Oklahoma Hospital Association, said hospitals in the state are also caring for everyday patients while catching up from surgeries postponed in the spring.

“We don't want patients to delay care if they feel like they need to come to the hospital,” said Halstead. “We don't want to eliminate elective surgeries or procedures."

Halstead said the common struggle between hospitals is a shortage of staff.

"There's quite a bit of bidding wars out there for nurses,” said Halstead. “Our hospitals are losing nurses to national staffing agencies because they're paying more if you go to other places."

State health department data released Wednesday show 124 of Oklahoma's ICU beds are available.

Halstead said some patients are getting care outside of their communities or even outside the state if they cannot get the treatment they need. Halstead also said hospitals need a way to quickly find out where there are open beds.

"We're trying to work on a system so that they can have access to that information at least once or twice a day and then maybe they can have an idea," Halstead said.

Dr. Bruce Dart with the Tulsa Health Department said he is also concerned about how the upcoming flu season could impact hospitals. Dart said last flu season, 16 Tulsa County residents died, and 866 residents were hospitalized with influenza.

"Taking steps to prevent the flu will allow our healthcare systems to concentrate their efforts and have room to treat all illnesses during the pandemic," Dart said during Tuesday’s news conference.

News On 6 checked in with hospitals around Green County, such as Ascension St. John, Hillcrest HealthCare System, INTEGRIS Health, Saint Francis Health System and OSU Medical Center. Of those hospitals, most said they do have a few beds still available and have been accepting some transfer patients.