Short-Staffed And Short On Solutions: Your Doctor, Nurse Might Have Covid

Sacramento Bee: Unions Condemn New Policy On COVID-Positive Hospital Workers 
Two influential and powerful health care labor unions condemned California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday for putting corporate interests ahead of public health after state regulators announced that hospitals and other institutions can compel asymptomatic workers to return to work even if they tested positive for COVID-19 or were exposed to it. “Gov. Newsom and our state’s public health leaders are putting the needs of health care corporations before the safety of patients and workers,” said Cathy Kennedy, a registered nurse and president of the California Nurses Association. “We want to care for our patients and see them get better – not potentially infect them. Sending nurses and other health care workers back to work while infected is dangerous. If we get sick, who will be left to care for our patients and community?” (Anderson, 1/10)

Politico: Health Care Workers Are Panicked As Desperate Hospitals Ask Infected Staff To Return 
“We don't think anyone who is knowingly Covid positive should be interacting with a cancer patient,” the American Cancer Society’s CEO, Karen Knudsen, told POLITICO. The CDC recommends, though doesn’t require, health providers to tell patients if an infected worker spends more than 15 minutes with them at a distance of less than six feet. Many health experts say transmission can occur in less time and distance. None of the hospitals POLITICO contacted responded when asked whether patients are informed if a caregiver was recently infected. (Levy, 1/10)

AP: Vegas-Area Hospital Firm Cuts Staff COVID Quarantine Time 
A hospital company with several facilities in southern Nevada saying Monday it will cut to five days its return-to-work target for medical personnel who test positive for COVID-19. Dignity Health, with suburban medical centers in Henderson, southwest Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, joined facilities around the nation taking steps to let nurses and other workers infected with the coronavirus stay on the job if they have mild or no symptoms of illness. (1/11)

And more about staff shortages —

USA Today: COVID Staffing Shortages Reported At 24% Of US Hospitals
Almost a quarter of U.S. hospitals are reporting "critical staffing shortages" as counties across the country set COVID-19 case records. About 24% of nearly 5,000 hospitals are experiencing the shortages — the most since the start of the pandemic — and another 100 anticipate shortages this week, according to the newest data released by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Meanwhile, medical centers nationwide could set a single-day record for in-patient care of coronavirus patients as soon as Tuesday. According to the Washington Post, U.S. hospitalizations totaled 141,385 on Monday, barely under a record set on Jan. 14, 2021. (Yancey-Bragg, Stucka, Ortiz and Rice, 1/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospitals Cut Beds As Nurses Call In Sick With Covid-19 
Rising numbers of nurses and other critical healthcare workers are calling in sick across the U.S. due to Covid-19, forcing hospitals to cut capacity just as the Omicron variant sends them more patients, industry officials say. The hospitals are leaving beds empty because the facilities don’t have enough staffers to safely care for the patients, and a tight labor market has made finding replacements difficult. (Evans, 1/10)

WUSF Public Media: Staff Shortages And Surging Coronavirus Cases Are Straining Florida Hospitals 
COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise in Florida, although not yet to the peak levels seen during the delta surge last summer. Florida Hospital Association president Mary Mayhew said the omicron variant is causing less severe illness in most patients. She said the portion of COVID patients requiring intensive care or oxygen is far lower than during delta. Some patients aren't even going to the hospital for COVID, but instead are testing positive while seeking care for something else. Still, Mayhew tells Health News Florida's Stephanie Colombini the surge is straining hospitals. (Colombini, 1/10)

In related news —

Billings Gazette: Nursing Labor Market Tightened, Wages Rose During Pandemic, MSU Study Shows
A new study from a Montana State University researcher and his colleagues provides evidence that the labor market tightened for the nursing workforce throughout the first 15 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a period marked by falling employment and rising wages across the industry. The paper, “Nurse Employment During the First 15 Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” was published today in the January issue of the journal Health Affairs. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Current Population Survey, which is administered monthly by the U.S. Census Bureau, the study identified and described the immediate economic impact of the pandemic on registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and nursing assistants across the U.S. from April 2020 through June 2021. (Gorham, 1/10)

KHN: Fire Closes Hospital And Displaces Staff As Colorado Battles Omicron 
The Colorado wildfire that destroyed more than 1,000 homes last month has forced the temporary closure of a hospital and upended the lives of health care workers as the state’s already strained health care system braces for another surge in covid-19 hospitalizations. Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville, a community outside Boulder that was devastated in the wildfire that erupted Dec. 30, has been closed due to smoke damage and officials have not announced when it might reopen. In addition, at least 36 people who work in hospitals in the region lost their homes, while others sustained smoke damage to their homes that may prevent them from returning home. (Ruder, 1/11)