AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — Health care workers across the country and in Colorado are bracing for an anticipated post-Thanksgiving surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
“We are preparing as if we are going to continue having a spike in cases really all the way through January, by the time you take into account Thanksgiving and Christmas,” said Dr. Jean Kutner, Chief Medical Officer at University of Colorado Hospital.
Kutner says they were preparing for a surge even before Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order in November, calling on hospitals to create a plan that would increase bed capacity by at least 50% and provide extra staff and equipment.
“It definitely makes us very nervous because when you get to that high of a capacity, everything just gets thinned out in terms of staffing and the number of patients that we’re asking our providers to take care of,” said Kutner.
At UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, she says they’re shifting staff from other areas of the hospital to help cover the increased patient load.
“Across UCHealth, we’ve developed a pool of providers, physicians who don’t usually care for patients in the hospital setting, a reserve pool that are ready to be pulled in to help cover those services when we need them to,” said Kutner.
Kutner says they’re facing new challenges with the anticipated increase in cases, like a shortage in nursing staff. That was not as much of an issue early on in the pandemic, when the greatest need was concentrated in certain pockets of the country.
“People from Colorado went to New York for example, to help out. We can’t do that now because of the numbers across the country. Every city needs every staff member that they have,” said Kutner.
They’re also seeing a higher number of patients seeking regular medial care compared to earlier stages of the pandemic. Kutner says as they adjust, they need to maintain capacity to care for non-COVID patients, as well.
“This is real. We are still taking care of many people with COVID-19 on a daily basis. We really want people to stay healthy. We’re here ready to take care of you but we’d actually rather that you didn’t need us,” said Kutner.
