COVID-19 Cases Continue To Increase, Taking Toll On Healthcare Workers

By Gordon HopkinsNebraska continues to see an increase in COVID-19 infections, including in southeast Nebraska. Jefferson County has reported 54 new confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in the last two weeks. That is according to data from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).Hospital CapacityAs a result, last Friday, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts issued a new Directed Health Measure (DHM), “The DHM suspends Class C, D, and E inpatient and outpatient surgeries (pre-scheduled, non-emergency medical surgeries) at The Nebraska Medical Center (NMC) in Omaha after the hospital facility chose to begin operating under a crisis standard of care yesterday. The DHM takes effect today (Friday, January 14th) at 5:00 p.m. and is scheduled to remain in place through February 13, 2022.”While this DHM only refers to NMC, there is still an impact here in Jefferson County.A major concern and contributor to potential mortality of infected patients is hospital capacity. Jefferson Community Health and Life does not possess ventilators. As COVID-19 cases surge in parts of Nebraska, Ambulance District #33 is having to travel further and further to find hospital beds for patients. Ambulance Director Alan Rosenthal said recently that they have been forced to transport patients to such places as Columbus, Norfolk and Kearny. Of the hospital in Lincoln, Rosenthal said, “It's still full, almost all the time it seems like.”The Nebraska Hospital Association (NHA) held an online meeting on Monday, January 10, to discuss hospital capacity. Hospitals have reported staffing shortages, a lack of available beds and health care worker burnout.Jeremy Nordquist, president of NHA, said, “Our hospitals here in Nebraska are facing one of the, if not the, most challenging times of the pandemic. COVID positivity rates are racing upward and hospitalization rates are following, especially on the unvaccinated. We could see a doubling of hospitalizations due to COVID in Nebraska over the next two to three weeks. That alone would overwhelm our healthcare system, but we're also facing some of the worst staffing challenges we've had during COVID. As the community spread of COVID continues to go forward and go upward, it's putting many of our health care providers on the sideline, either themselves are testing positive or they have a family member who test positive.”Todd Consbruck, CEO and president of Avera St. Anthony Hospital in O'Neil, said, “Nebraskans as a whole are a caring, compassionate group. But we are seeing segments of society right now who are not giving healthcare workers the respect and kindness that they deserve.”Consbruck said, “The thing I want to ask is, when people are ill, take it seriously. It could be a cold, it could be the flu, it could be COVID. But if you continue to socialize and exposed to others while you're positive, you're exacerbating the problem. We see time and time again, family members who attend events or go to social gatherings and are not feeling well but continue to go to those events and expose many other people, if not their own families. And that creates hotspots, or whatever you want to call it, of patients and families who, in all honesty, needlessly got sick and we don't have the capacity anymore for everyone.”Consbruck noted that, while treating COVID patients, they still have to treat other diseases and injuries as well, “We're still dealing with car accidents, cancer, heart attacks.”VaccinationsNordquist said, “Vaccines with boosters are tremendously effective at preventing hospitalizations. You're 36 times less likely to be hospitalized if you get your vaccine and your booster than if you're unvaccinated. And that is really the crux of the challenge that we're facing right now. So please, another call for Nebraskans to get vaccine and boosted especially those that are high risk.”Despite this, there is continued vaccine hesitancy among Nebraskans. According to data from the DHHS, just 57 percent of eligible individuals (age five and up) have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Jefferson County is currently 58 percent, after being stalled at 57 percent for several weeks. The overall state average is 65.61 percent. However, it is important to remember this is an average. Some counties have a higher percent, such as Douglas County at 70 percent or Lancaster County at 71 percent. Others are considerably lower, such as Brown County at 35 percent, Cherry County at 27 percent or McPherson County at 19 percent.

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