Providence Medical Center, 8929 Parallel Parkway, has seen some small increases of COVID-19 patients for the past few weeks, and capacity also has been a little tight because of staffing, according to a spokesman.
“We haven’t seen spikes (in COVID-19 patients), just increases of two to three more each week,” said Sam Allred, a spokesman for Providence. He is the regional director of business development, marketing and physician recruitment for Providence Medical Center, which is a member of Prime Healthcare.
He said the hospital is not where it was during the first wave that came through.
“We actually have plenty of bed space,” he said. “What we don’t have, which is just as important, is the staff.”
There have been some staff members out on quarantine, but it hasn’t been a lot of staff members, he added. There also have been some nurses who were set to retire in a year or two and decided to go ahead and retire now, he added.
“What we’re fighting, and we’re trying to recruit more people, is not a physical capacity, but a staff capacity,” he said. “We’re OK, but we’re tight, not because of space, necessarily.”
When the first wave of COVID-19 patients came through in the spring, the hospital converted areas of the hospital to COVID-19 units to increase its capacity, he said.
They could do that again, if necessary, but the challenge would be finding the staffing for it, he added. Available staff members are often in the same hiring pool, with many of the hospitals looking for people to hire.
They’re currently at the point where, if the trend continues, they would have to look at how to deploy staff from other units to keep up with any potential increases in dealing with COVID-19, he said.
They will be watching the data and making determinations week by week, Allred said.
The number of COVID-19 inpatients at Providence changes every day. On Thursday, the number was 13 COVID-19 positive inpatients, with another 13 inpatients who were “persons under investigation,” who may or may not have COVID-19, he said.
There were higher numbers than that in the springtime, during the first wave, Allred said.
Providence took care of some of the patients from Riverbend Post-Acute Rehabilitation Center, where there was an outbreak of over 130 COVID-19 cases and 36 deaths in the spring.
It also has received some of the patients from The Piper Assisted Living facility, on North 113th Terrace, which is listed on the Unified Government’s COVID-19 outbreak map as having had 76 COVID-19 cases and 14 deaths.
Allred said currently, COVID-19 patients aren’t as sick as they were in the first wave, and fewer of them are on ventilators.
While the intensive care unit has had more patients recently, it’s not full, Allred said.
Providence also has had some calls from small hospitals an hour and a half away, but it is not taking a lot of transfer patients, he said. It isn’t because they don’t want them, but it depends on the day and all the variables involved with the patient and what the patient needs. They are taking some transfers, but it is very limited, he added.
So far, they have not had to handle surgeries differently than usual, he said. They have policies and procedures in place to make sure the surgery is needed, to watch the data and to make sure there is enough staff, he said.
“We’re in a much different place with our PPE (personal protective equipment),” he said. With the first wave of patients, some surgeries and procedures were postponed around the nation to conserve gear and equipment.
While they are still conserving PPE, they are doing much better with supplies now, he said. They also obtained more reusable equipment as much as possible.
Allred said they are continuing to watch the COVID-19 numbers, as hospital admissions have increased two or three each week, and hope that they see a valley in the rates again.
