‘Uncharted territory.’ A third of KY hospitals report critical staff shortages.
One-third of Kentucky’s acute care hospitals are reporting critical staffing shortages, Gov. Andy Beshear said on Thursday, warning that the state is in “uncharted territory.”
Thirty-two of the state’s 96 hospitals capable of treating the sickest patients have said they don’t have staff to keep up with the escalating number of COVID-19 patients, he said.
Coronavirus hospitalizations have escalated for 42 consecutive days, and the state has clocked a record number of pandemic hospitalizations for the last five days. On Tuesday, a peak 2,074 people with the virus filled the state’s hospital beds, 549 were in intensive care units and 338 were relying on a ventilator to breathe.
“As horrible as last year’s surge was, we were never in a position where doctors had to choose between treating a patient because of COVID-19 and treating a patient who’s bleeding out because of a car accident. That’s the strain our hospitals are under,” the governor said from the state Capitol.
Dr. Dennis Beck, interim chief administrative officer at Deaconness Hospital in Henderson, said his facility’s patient volume is “higher than [it’s] ever been . . . in the history of our health system.”
Like in the rest of Kentucky and the country, the overwhelming majority of patients who are hospitalized and dying from the virus are unvaccinated; since March 1, 91% of the 4,561 people hospitalized with the virus in the state have been unvaccinated, and 87% of the 706 people who’ve died were unvaccinated. “Patients are dying without need,” Beck said.
To alleviate some strain on hospital emergency departments, where too many people are flocking just to get a coronavirus test, Beshear said he’s using CARES Act money to set up temporary testing sites outside of hospitals in Corbin, Morehead and Pikeville.
“It’s just necessary because we are in an emergency situation,” he said.
Earlier this week, the governor requested dozens of health care workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to support the state’s taxed health care staff. Only part of that request has so far been filled, he said. For a month beginning on Friday, 30 emergency medical services personnel and 15 ambulances will arrive in the state to help transport sick patients from hospitals that are either at capacity or can’t offer specialized care to others that can.
Community spread of the virus is worse than it’s ever been in the commonwealth, propelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant. Were it not for the Kentucky Supreme Court’s decision on Saturday upholding a series of laws passed by the Republican-majority General Assembly that stripped his executive authority, Beshear said he would move to enact another statewide mask mandate indoors. The breaking point, he said, was the 65 reported COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday — all but 8 of whom died this month.
“That would’ve been the trigger for me, if it was in my authority, to put in a masking order indoors across the state,” Beshear said. “I can’t do that now, and I get that. I’ll provide all the information I can to the General Assembly and hopefully, they will make the best choice they can. But I’m begging you out there, put on a mask.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 1:27 PM.
