GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A U.S. Navy medical response team is trading in their Navy green uniforms for Bellin blue scrubs.
The 23-person team arrived at Bellin Hospital in Green Bay earlier this week and will be caring for patients starting Thursday.
At the request of FEMA, outside help was needed to support healthcare workers treating COVD-19 patients amid the omicron surge.
The traveling team is made up of physicians, registered nurses, medical surgical nurses, respiratory therapists and administrative staff.
Chris Woleske, president and CEO of Bellin Health says the team is a welcomed sight for the understaffed hospital.
Bellin Health is one of eleven hospitals across the country receiving help from the U.S. Navy.
She says she believes it’s because Bellin was able to show specific, open spaces in its hospital and if it had more staff, they could treat more patients.
“The other hospitals do need this help and they’re asking for this same help but I think there is something a bit unique about our ask and that is that we have the physical capacity, the space, that was recently constructed that allows us the opportunity to bring in additional staffing resources and actually turn that physical space and those beds into increased capacity,” she said.
“Addition of this staff allows our teams to expand their capacity,” said Bellin Health Chief Nursing Officer, Laura Hieb. “They come very skilled. So what it allows us to do, is increase the caseload of those that are here. Any additional nurse or respiratory therapist that we get allows us to treat more individuals.”
Woleske says just in the month of November alone, Bellin Hospital had to turn away at least 300 patient transfers from other overwhelmed hospitals because they didn’t have the staff to take care of them.
This U.S. Navy team hopes to help with that.
“It’s nice to deploy to America. I’ve been deployed to many places, Iraq, overseas, things like that; it’s nice to deploy to Americans, to help Americans, to be greeted by Americans and to feel that sanctity that we’re doing something good,” said U.S. Navy Captain John H. Callahan, officer in charge of the medical response team.
Captain Callahan’s team was previously helping out a hospital in Billings, Montana before coming to Green Bay.
The team’s deployment will last 30 days before they move on to help another hospital.
Woleske adds that the team’s help is temporary, so the community is still encouraged to do all they can to stop the spread of COVID-19. Everyone is encouraged to wear a mask in public spaces, socially distance from those not in your immediate household, wash your hands often and consider getting vaccinated or your booster, if eligible.
