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Area hospitals address room capacity

In press conferences, Medical Center Hospital said they are at max capacity and Midland Memorial Hospital addressed their need for nurses.

ODESSA, Texas — On Monday night, Medical Center Hospital held an emergency press conference due to the hospital being at max capacity. On Tuesday morning, Midland Memorial Hospital addressed the need of nurses during their daily press conferences.  

Russell Meyers, CEO for Midland Health, said that hospitals are faced with a compounding issue between staff and space for patients.

"The problem is staff, it's not space," Meyers said. "It is availability of nursing staff, respiratory therapists and other support staff to be able to safely care for patients in the spaces we have. We are a long way of having to add space. Right now we need to add a lot of people to use the space we have."

Local health leaders at MCH told NewsWest 9 the possibility of having tents outside the hospital could become a reality if hospitalizations don't go down.

"You know we can create bed space all over the hospital and all over the parking lot, but then you run into the issue of not having the staff to care for them," Christin Timmons, Chief Nursing Officer for MCH said. "Right now we are talking about bringing those tents. If the trajectory continues, this way, we could be at that situation by this week or into the weekend." 

Doctors at MCH said they will continue to take care of any person who walks into the hospital, but they want people to consider going somewhere else if possible.

"It's important for us to repeat it, we need our community to really be mindful for what they are using the emergency room," Russell Tippin, CEO for MCH said. "We are just at the point where we are sounding the alarm letting people know that the medical center is at max capacity."

Officials at Midland Memorial Hospital told NewsWest 9 the hospital is getting about 15 nurses from the state to help with the recent surge. Leaders at MCH said that about 25 people will be sent to their hospital as well.

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