Prisma Health, beset by COVID surge, requests staffing assistance at Upstate hospital
With its staffing strained by the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, Prisma Health has requested assistance from state emergency management officials and the National Guard to help staff a 15-bed unit for patients recovering from the coronavirus at one of its Upstate hospitals.
The Laurens County Hospital COVID-19 convalescent unit, which is set to open next week, will serve as a “step-down” unit where recovering coronavirus patients can be moved to free up acute care beds for sicker patients, Prisma spokeswoman Tammie Epps said.
The state Emergency Management Division will supply contracted staff, and the South Carolina National Guard will provide four medics to supplement the Prisma nurses who will work on the unit, she said.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the COVID-19 step-down unit would be used only for Prisma Laurens hospital patients or if patients from Prisma’s seven other hospitals in the Upstate and Midlands might also be transferred there. The State is awaiting Prisma’s response to that question and others concerning the planned convalescent unit.
EMD spokesman Derrec Becker said Prisma’s request is the first formal request for assistance the agency has received from a hospital during the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.
Other hospitals have informally requested staffing assistance for further down the road, he said, but the details of that aid has not been finalized and may not ultimately be necessary.
Prisma’s aid request comes as COVID-19 cases have skyrocketed in South Carolina over the past six weeks, reaching levels more than twice what they were during the summer surge that had previously marked the apex of coronavirus infection in the state.
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have also maintained record highs over the past two-and-a-half weeks and continue to rise, reaching 2,453 Tuesday, more than 40% higher than at any point last summer.
A record 27% of the state’s hospital beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients Tuesday.
While COVID-19 cases are spiking across the state, the virus has had a particularly severe impact on the Upstate in recent months.
The Upstate’s seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases is roughly four times what it was in early November and two Upstate counties — Greenville and Spartanburg — currently rank among the worst coronavirus hotspots in the nation.
Laurens County, which has about 67,000 residents, has in the past six weeks reported more COVID-19 cases and deaths per capita than the state average, data shows.
Prisma CEO Mark O’Halla testified before the Legislative Black Caucus Tuesday morning that his hospital system had been battered by the recent wave of COVID-19 cases.
He said that, as of Monday, Prisma was caring for 551 inpatients with COVID-19 systemwide.
“We have seen a 72% jump in the total number of COVID patients that we’re seeing currently,” compared to the worst day during the summer surge, O’Halla said.
The jump in patients has strained the state’s largest health system’s ability to staff hospitals and created concerns about intensive care unit capacity, he said.
As of Tuesday, 97.8% of the hospital system’s ICU beds were in use, O’Halla said.
The staffing crunch, due in part to the 345 Prisma employees, including 143 registered nurses, currently out of work with the virus, has forced Prisma to postpone nonemergency surgeries and diagnostic procedures at its hospitals, the CEO said.
“Because of the fact that we’re in the middle of this big surge, it has caused us to do a number of things that are, frankly, unique and different,” O’Halla said.
To help deal with the surge, staff that normally work in other areas have been pulled into working with COVID-19 patients and on the frontlines battling the virus. Prisma has also brought in a number of outside nursing personnel to backfill for nurses who are out with COVID-19.
“Until the surge starts to abate, we are going to continue to be challenged by our staffing limitations,” O’Halla said.
Epps said the health system would continue working with EMD and DHEC to address any facility changes or staffing needs.
Such changes may include opening Prisma Health hospital units not currently in use, transforming large hospital spaces into patient care sites or opening alternate care sites, she said.
Reporter Sam Ogozalek contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 3:39 PM.
