Methodist in the Media
Iowa, Metro Hospitals Encourage COVID-19 Prevention as Surge Threatens Resources, Health Care Workers
Published: Nov. 11, 2020
Area hospitals continue to care for an influx of COVID-19 patients while making contingency plans should the recent surge get worse.
“The number of COVID-19 patients we are seeing in the community is at its highest point since the pandemic began,” officials with CHI Health Mercy Hospital and Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs said in a joint statement. “Based off the data we are tracking, those numbers are likely to still climb.”
Mercy and Jennie Edmundson officials said the hospitals are responding to increased staffing needs, with nurses and other staff picking up extra shifts and working in other areas where needed. The hospitals will utilize traveling nurses when the need arises.
The officials noted a high number of hospitalizations this time of year is not unusual.
“But increased COVID-19 patients requires that we monitor bed capacity, increase staffing and make adjustments as necessary. We are confident in our surge plans for both patients and staff, and will adjust as necessary. We are certainly concerned about the staff and their fatigue, but everyone is really pulling together,” the officials said in the joint statement.
