MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – Hospitals across the state are continuing to have a hard time finding enough nurses and staff to handle the surge in COVID patients. But many say it’s not for a lack of trying.
“We have looked for staff everywhere. We’ve taken them from the Department of Education, from our quality department, from everywhere we possibly can to take care of the demands on our staff. But it’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough,” said Marshfield Clinic Chief Medical Officer, Dr. William Melms. “Space is tight in our facilities, but mostly, we just don’t have the staff to care for everyone who needs our help…We can always create more space, which we do. But we cannot create the people to care for our patients.”
Melms adds that they’re currently turning away over 100 referrals every week from hospitals that need their help.
This also comes as critics like Assembly Speaker Robin Vos argue that vaccine mandates are a factor behind the shortage in health care workers. That’s a rhetoric Melms says isn’t particularly accurate.
“We have over 12,000 employees. We lost less than 100 because of the vaccine mandate,” Melms said. “One thing that did happen with the vaccine mandate is that many of our hesitant employees, thousands of hesitant employees, got vaccinated. So it accomplished what it needed to do.”
The Wisconsin Hospital Association said its members, on average, reported losing less than two percent of staff following announcement of vaccine mandates.
Melms added that the vast majority of their employees who elected not to get the shots were also granted exemptions for various reasons, all of which were carefully reviewed.
Marshfield Clinic has seen a steady increase of about 10-percent for in-patient care of COVID patients since the Delta variant became the predominant strain. Melms says 35 patients died of COVID over a recent four-week span.
