Pierce County hospitals creating wards, rationing supplies as they brace for COVID-19 surge
Pierce County hospitals are adapting campuses and in some cases directing patients to other hospitals to prepare for an influx of coronavirus, or COVID-19, patients.
All Pierce County hospitals have staff at the door, screening visitors about their travels and health, and taking their temperatures. Those who have had a cough in the past two weeks or have been traveling out of the country are turned away at the door.
Hospitals also are postponing non-emergency and elective surgeries, so as many resources as possible are directed to the coronavirus pandemic, per Gov. Jay Inslee’s request.
With many surgeries pushed back and non-emergency appointments canceled, staff are being reassigned to help screen or care for patients in critical care.
Policies for protective equipment also have changed so hospitals can ration what supplies they have. Staff are now re-wearing disposable masks for entire 12-hour shifts or placing them on hooks for specific patients.
“These are not normal times, and we are doing everything we can to keep our staff and patients safe, while also conserving masks under the latest local CDC guidelines,” said Cary Evans, vice president for CHI Franciscan’s Communications and Government Affairs.
Converting space and staff
For CHI Franciscan, staffing is managed through a NASA-style control room, with 18 screens displaying available beds, wait times for surgery and staffing levels, said Jessica Schlicher, medical director of CHI Franciscan’s Mission Control Center. Nurses who usually oversee patients in pre- and post-surgery have been moved to screen visitors or help with the 32 patients confirmed COVID-19-positive across the hospital chain and 67 suspected to have the virus.
MultiCare hospitals, including Tacoma General, Good Samaritan and Allenmore, are evaluating how to take care of more coronavirus patients, spokesperson Marce Edwards said in an email.
Clinical staff have been shifted to handle the anticipated increase in COVID-19 patients, Edwards said. MultiCare has tested 161 positive cases, with 25 hospitalized.
Pediatric patients at Good Samaritan in Puyallup are being redirected to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital to make sure there are enough beds for adults.
MultiCare is prepared to expand emergency departments to tents outside the hospital, Edwards said.
CHI Franciscan, the health system that oversees St. Anthony, St. Joseph and St. Clare, is ramping up tele-health care channels to see patients virtually. The company has a Virtual Health Hospital on State Street in Tacoma that hosts more than 150 clinicians and IT professionals to consult with patients remotely.
Hospitals also have converted rooms and entire floors to negative pressure environments.
Negative pressure rooms are encouraged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for those with airborne infections. This design pushes air outside once it has gone through the room, rather than recycling the air and sending it to other rooms in the hospital.
CHI Franciscan hospitals have altered their HVAC systems to allow for more negative pressure rooms. As of Tuesday, Franciscan has more than doubled these rooms, counting 162 rooms with negative airflow.
“The idea is to prevent viral pathogens from escaping into the broader environment,” Evans said in an email.
Adding beds
MultiCare has created open wards, where several patients would be kept in the same space, Edwards said. Having open wards also would help mitigate the lack of gloves, masks and other medical supplies when staff can wear the same protection for several patients.
The health system also is looking to add beds.
“We are working to procure the supplies and equipment, including beds, to do that,” Edwards said in an email.
Growing reliance on traveling nurses
Local hospitals also have doubled the weekly pay for traveling nurses. NurseFly, a traveling nurse company, said Washington has tripled its demand for registered nurses.
Those with specialization in intensive care or infection control are seeing the highest demand. Recently, there has been an average of 350 intensive care nursing jobs being added every week, NurseFly’s CEO Parth Bhakta said.
The nurses fly in from across the country to help relieve staff and prepare for an influx in patients. They are signing four- to six-week contracts with the possibility of extensions, Bhakta said.
This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 5:05 AM.
