MIDLAND, Texas — COVID-19 cases are surging across the area and now Midland Memorial Hospital is having a hard time keeping up.
“We have no bed availability currently and have been in this situation for well over a week,” Dr. Wilson, Chief Medical Officer for MMH said.
Bed space isn’t the only problem, hospital staffing is also an issue. At times there is only one nurse for eight patients.
“With the ratios we have right now, we are stretched to the maximum capacity, well beyond what we normally consider to be safe,” Kit Bredimus, Chief Nursing Officer said.
The hospital is trying to hire staff to keep up with demand, but staffing is few and far between.
“Speaking with a staffing agency yesterday, they have nationwide 40,000 open requisitions and they have a staff of about 1,000," Bredimus said.
The hospital is holding COVID-19 patients in the emergency department and trying to transfer patients to other hospitals, but there hasn’t been much luck.
“We've been unable to transfer patients from our facility to other facilities to find them in-patient beds, because all surrounding hospitals, including surrounding state hospitals, are in a similar condition,” said Dr.Wilson.
Without help from the state or FEMA this time, keeping up with demand could be more difficult than in the past.
“This time we are on are own, they are not sending additional nurses for support, we have put in multiple star requests and have been told the state will not be providing those and that we will have to continue to source them on our own,” said Bredimus.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management and the state wants cities and counties to use the funding they got from the federal government for COVID related issues.
The hospital is doing all they can to keep up and is in the process of trying to open another 12-bed unit, but at this point is just attempting to keep their heads above water.
“Every patient that walks through our doors we will work to stabilize, treat the best that we can,” said Bredimus.
Hospital officials say the best thing you can do to help them out is to be patient and most of all get the Covid vaccine as the majority of their patients are unvaccinated.
If you want to find a vaccination site near you, visit vaccines.gov.