Kaweah Delta granted extension of its military healthcare workers
Kaweah Delta granted extension of its military healthcare workers
Kaweah Delta urges community to limit social gatherings for the Labor Day holiday
VISALIA – Kaweah Delta Medical Center has been granted a 14-day extension
of the military healthcare team that is assisting the local hospital in
its care of COVID-19 patients.
“This is a celebratory moment for us,” said Gary Herbst, Kaweah
Delta’s Chief Executive Officer, noting that the Visalia hospital
will continue to work with the State of California and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to request a full 30-day extension. With the 14-day
extension, the deployment will end on Aug. 29. “We have greatly
enjoyed this partnership, working together to help care for our community
and the surge in COVID patients we experienced following Fourth of July
gatherings.”
Since mid-July, the team of 21 military healthcare workers – mostly
from Travis Air Force Base – have been assisting the Kaweah Delta team.
The team’s arrival happened at a time when COVID numbers were on
the rise and more than 70 staff members were on quarantine, which made
staffing hospital beds a challenge. On Wednesday, Aug. 11, Kaweah Delta
was caring for 64 patients with COVID-19, down from the Visalia hospital’s
high of 91 patients on July 25, but still with more than 70 staff members
quarantined at home.
“We’re worried about Labor Day. Ideally, we would like to have
the military healthcare workforce for 30 more days because it would help
us get past Labor Day when we know we will see an increase in cases,”
said Keri Noeske, Kaweah Delta’s Chief Nursing Officer. “In
the meantime, we have been working to increase staffing by bringing on
new hires because that’s really the goal of it. The military support
is not meant to be a long-term solution, but it helps create a window
for us to get staff in place. And as hard as it will be, we do ask the
community to help us by limiting their social gatherings for the Labor
Day weekend.”
Kaweah Delta’s solutions to staffing challenges include incentivizing
clinical staff to work additional shifts, hiring additional clinical staff,
and hiring more student nurse interns. Additionally, Kaweah Delta has
already returned a number of registered nurses to the bedside who traditionally
work in other departments.
Kaweah Delta shares COVID-19 information and regular updates with the community
on its website at
www.kaweahdelta.org/COVID19 and on its social media accounts.
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