Health officials in Mississippi say increased transmission and hospitalizations of the coronavirus pose a serious threat to the state’s healthcare system. 73 hospitals across the state are requesting a combined total of at least 14 hundred healthcare workers through the state’s disaster response plan, according to Jim Craig with the Department of Health. And he says a new order allows off-duty emergency responders to work inside of emergency rooms to aid staff.
Craig says “Every day in the state of Mississippi, we’re short on paramedics. And the priority is still to make sure that we’re out there to answer 911 calls, and that emergency transfers are being answered and responded to. But we do understand that there are some off-duty units that would like to help out in the hospitals and this enables that process to work, and the hospitals have asked for the same resource.”
Without adequate staffing, health officials say there will be compromises to the standard quality of care. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs says if hospitals are full, they should not turn away a patient in need. But, he says things may look different as hospitalizations continue to rise.
Dr. Dobbs says “It may not be what we’re used to seeing. It may be patients in the hallways, it may be patients in alternate areas, it may be people doubled up in a room. But we are in the crisis standards of care mode where we’re not able to do things in the way that we would normally expect for them to be done, and trying to make the most with the resources we have.”
Health officials say there have been waiting lists of people in Mississippi’s emergency rooms, and when intensive care beds do become available they are quickly filled.
