OHRH deals with staffing shortages as omicron surge intensifies

Jan. 21—Owensboro Health Regional Hospital is seeing another surge in COVID-19 patients as hospital staff are continuing to experience more burnout because of staffing shortages, according to Dr. Michael Kelley, the hospital's vice president of medical affairs.

Hospital staffing has been a large concern throughout the pandemic, not just for OHRH, but for hospitals nationwide, according to Kelley.

As the hospital continues to see increasing patient numbers with the omicron variant, Kelley said the hospital is working to utilize the staff it has on hand to the best of its abilities, even hiring traveling nurses. But that doesn't change the fact that the staff are tired.

"We have less overall staff to take care of these patients because some people have left the profession; some people have taken traveling nurse positions throughout the country; some people have just been unable to meet the same hours that they did before; and we have a lot of them that are out with COVID," he said. "On a daily basis, we are seeing more and more team members being out with COVID, so all of those things put in the mix — with numbers that are rivaling that last wave — is extremely challenging."

Kelley said the hospital is coming up with innovative ways to care for people and to ensure each person is working to the top of their license, while also ensuring patients in the hospital are receiving the best care possible.

"We need to use all hands on deck," he said. "If we have less people to do the work, then we need to make sure everyone is doing everything they possibly can be allowed to do."

With longer wait times in the emergency department, Kelley said there have been changes in triaging patients to ensure patients get seen to gauge their condition and state.

Additionally, he said the hospital is working on getting antiviral treatments, along with the monoclonal antibody treatments that are already being administered, for patients who test positive with COVID-19 and might be at risk for severe infection, with the intention of preventing potential hospitalization or death.

However, Kelley said those treatments and medications are in limited supply, especially with two of the three monoclonal antibody treatments on the market not being as effective against the omicron variant.

"At one time, we may have 300 requests for monoclonal antibodies, and we only have 65 doses," he said. "We've done what we can on leveraging those."

He said there will likely be extended wait times as the number of patients in the hospital continues to increase, and he asks for patience and understanding from the community as the hospital and its staff work to mitigate those challenges.

"As a hospital, we say there are no beds, and that's a misnomer," he said. "In reality, we have to have staff for those beds, and the ratios to take care of people, depending on how sick they are, has to be a reasonable ratio. So we can't have one nurse taking care of eight patients.

"We certainly are, just like everyone else in the country, challenged by the number of people that we have to do the work."

While there is increased burnout, Kelley said staff are not disengaged.

"I almost feel like at this point, there's a little bit more burnout," he said. "We're not apathetic; we're still trying to do our best to care for patients, but there's probably a numbness to this repetitive process that's going on. We still recognize that we have a mission, and we recognize our core components and values that we try to live up to."

While Kelley said the hospital does what it can to encourage staff and make sure their needs are being met, there is only so much that can be done.

"You can try to feed them, tell them how good of a job they're doing, you can try to pay them, you can do all of those things, but what everybody wants is a way to look at how this ends and getting to an endemic phase or some point in time where we can catch our breath and exhale," he said.

With rising numbers of omicron cases in the community, Kelley believes that point might not be on the horizon anytime soon.

On Thursday, ORHR reported 66 COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital, closing in on the peak of 69 patients seen on Sept. 21, 2021.

On a daily basis, Kelley said the hospital is seeing more and more admissions to the hospital for COVID-19, with record-breaking testing and positivity rates.

As of last week, Kelley said positivity rates at the hospital are averaging around 50%, with a larger number of people being tested than ever seen before.

There were 221 tests administered on Jan. 1, he said. By the middle of the second week of January, the number of tests administered had risen to 750 for three consecutive days.

"The number of tests are going up, the percent positive is downstream from that," he said. "Typically those are telling me ... in one-to-two weeks from now, that's when they start showing up at the front door."

Kelley said he expects case numbers will continue rising, as the region has just reported its highest number of new COVID-19 cases, at more than 3,000.

"I think we're about mid-slope on our way up to a peak," he said, "and the next couple of weeks will probably be the highest numbers we've seen."

Christie Netherton, cnetherton@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7360