In September, Gov. Dunleavy announced that hundreds of medical personnel are coming to Alaska to assist the state’s health care facilities. Nearly 300 registered nurses and more than 100 certified nursing assistants or patient care technicians are among the health care workers that are set to arrive under a contract between the State of Alaska and the federal General Services Administration.
Bruce Richards, External Affairs Director for Central Peninsula Hospital, told KSRM that workers began to arrive at Central Peninsula Hospital:
“We have twelve people that have arrived at the hospital. 8 RNs and the rest are CNAs. We have three more pending that are on their way. They were approved to come here but they haven’t arrived yet. 12 total. Three pending. The majority of those are nurses. We requested ICU and med surge nurses. The majority of those are med surge nurses. We did get two or three ICU nurses. They are immediately getting put to work up on the floor and that will help reduce the load of the current staff. We’ve been over our maximum capacity for several weeks now. This will give the existing staff a bit of a breather and allow them to return to some sort of normalcy even though we’re still at or above capacity.”
Richards says the hospital remains busy:
“Yesterday, we were at exactly 100% capacity for our licensed beds. We’re managing through that. We’re having the infusion of new staff, which is going to helpful. The only thing that remains is, you know, where the case counts go and the number of people that arrive at the hospital for us. We’re hoping to see some sort of a downturn here, but I have no way of knowing which way it’s going to go. We’re still very busy. A lot of COVID patients and a lot of other patients who aren’t COVID related. They are just people who have become very sick or have had accidents. Our hospital is just extremely full, and the staff is working really hard to take care of everybody.”
The incoming health care workers are part of a comprehensive support plan for Alaska’s health care system for medical facilities strained by an influx of COVID-19 patients.
