{"id":52656,"date":"2020-07-16T10:40:32","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T16:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mercy-hospital-reaches-staffing-capacity-for-icu-beds\/"},"modified":"2020-07-16T16:40:32","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T16:40:32","slug":"mercy-hospital-reaches-staffing-capacity-for-icu-beds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mercy-hospital-reaches-staffing-capacity-for-icu-beds\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercy hospital reaches staffing capacity for ICU beds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1a279bcf-950a-4baa-a9c5-c26c1262d73e&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1094\" alt=\"Mercy Regional Medical Center said it is dealing with staffing shortages in its intensive care unit.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Mercy Regional Medical Center said it is dealing with staffing shortages in its intensive care unit.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>The intensive care unit at Mercy Regional Medical Center was at capacity this week \u2013 not because all the beds are in use, but because the hospital does not have sufficient staffing to care for more ICU patients, according to the hospital\u2019s president and CEO.<\/p>\n<p>Hospital capacity, including access to ventilators, COVID-19 testing and personal protective equipment, has been one of the nation\u2019s primary concerns as it grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. While Mercy is at capacity for ICU beds, it is not at capacity for ventilators and can provide care for sick patients, with or without COVID-19, CEO Mike Murphy said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have 23 ICU beds, however, due to our ability to staff those \u2013 find the ICU nurses and have them here \u2013 we\u2019re actually at capacity today,\u201d Murphy said Tuesday during a virtual presentation to the La Plata County Economic Development Alliance.<\/p>\n<p>During the presentation, Murphy said only five or six patients were in the ICU for COVID-related treatment, while others were there for non-COVID care. Mercy did not provide more specific information about how many of the 23 ICU beds were filled.<\/p>\n<p>The hospital is not experiencing a surge, and Murphy said the hospital still has surge capacity to expand to 23 ICU beds if needed. In April, Murphy said the hospital <a href=\"https:\/\/durangoherald.com\/articles\/320658\">could increase capacity<\/a> from 82 total beds in the hospital to 160 beds.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EtnocWzjC9s\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Staffing and increased need are the primary challenges, Murphy said in the presentation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe continue to scour the entire state and beyond to find additional ICU nurses,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n<p>Mercy did not respond to further questions about its additional staffing requests, when more staff could arrive at the hospital or how the ICU would respond to a surge. Mercy spokeswoman Sarah Silvernail said Murphy was unavailable to answer further questions Wednesday and Thursday morning.<\/p>\n<p>The rates of new COVID-19 cases in the region are increasing. In recent weeks, most states have shown either steady or exponential increases in the number of COVID-19 cases, which puts more strain on supplies and medical capacity.<\/p>\n<p>In Mercy\u2019s health care region, which extends from Cortez to Pagosa Springs and north to Montrose, new cases have also increased. For weeks, the region had about one to 1\u00bd new COVID patients per day, but the case numbers began to increase around June 25. In the first week of July, the rate increased to 5.3 patients per day. Last week, it was 5.7, Murphy said.<\/p>\n<p>As of Thursday, La Plata County reported 150 COVID cases and Archuleta had 16, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/sjbpublichealth.org\/sjbph-data-dashboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Juan Basin Public Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Along with the COVID-19 increase, other patients are coming in with more serious health care needs, Murphy said. Mercy can care for sick patients, but the combination of serious COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 cases makes intensive care a challenge for the hospital, Murphy said.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=44b3f33d-070b-48d7-b8cd-d31647ea89a4&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1700\" height=\"937\" alt=\"Mercy Regional Medical Center said it reached intensive care unit bed capacity because of staffing limits during a virtual presentation Tuesday at a La Plata County Economic Development Alliance meeting.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Mercy Regional Medical Center said it reached intensive care unit bed capacity because of staffing limits during a virtual presentation Tuesday at a La Plata County Economic Development Alliance meeting.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>The hospital has ventilators on hand, which provide vital care for patients with serious respiratory issues caused by COVID-19. However, ventilator use continues to increase, which Murphy said was \u201calarming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the highest level we have seen in the entire pandemic period,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Durango City Council expressed concern about the staffing challenges and discussed ways to increase mask use Tuesday during a City Council meeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery other hospital in the whole (network) needs those same nurses,\u201d said Councilor Kim Baxter. \u201cIt\u2019s looking kind of interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Councilors discussed options like mandatory mask zones and face-covering checkers at major retail stores. On Thursday, Gov. Jared Polis issued a mandatory, statewide face-covering order, which goes into effect Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not looking good,\u201d said Mayor Dean Brookie. \u201cMore importantly than ever, face masks are critical to our survival and our ability to keep our businesses open continuously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:smullane@durangoherald.com\">smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Durango City Council encourages mask use to prevent COVID cases<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,1020,28,68],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-durango-city-council","tag-headlines","tag-mercy-regional-medical-center"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52656"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}