Skip to content
CapRadio

CapRadio

signal status listen live donate
listen live donate signal status
listen live donate signal status
  • News
    • beats
    • State Government
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • Business
    • Arts and Lifestyle
    • Food and Sustainability
    • PolitiFact California
    • California Dream
    • Videos
    • Photos
  • Music
    • genres
    • Classical
    • Jazz
    • Roots
    • Eclectic
    • Videos
    • Daily Playlist
  • Programs + Podcasts
    • news
    • Morning Edition
    • All Things Considered
    • Marketplace
    • Insight
    • The View From Here
    • music
    • Acid Jazz
    • At the Opera
    • Classical Music
    • Connections
    • Excellence in Jazz
    • Hey, Listen!
    • Insight Music
    • K-ZAP on CapRadio
    • Mick Martin's Blues Party
    • Programs A-Z
    • Podcast Directory
  • Schedules
    • News
    • Music
    • ClassicalStream
    • JazzStream
    • Weekly Schedule
    • Daily Playlist
  • Community
    • Events Calendar
    • CapRadio Garden
    • CapRadio Reads
    • CapRadio Travels
    • Ticket Giveaways
  • Support
    • Evergreen Gift
    • One-Time Gift
    • Corporate Support / Underwriting
    • Vehicle Donation
    • Stock Gift
    • Legacy Gift
    • Endowment Gift
    • Volunteering
    • Benefits
    • Member FAQ
    • e‑Newsletter
    • Drawing Winners
    • Thank You Gifts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Close Menu
 We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter 
 We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter 

U.S. Hospitals Try To Bend But Not Break As They Wait For COVID-19 Vaccine To Kick In

By Blake Farmer | WPLN
Monday, December 21, 2020

Listen
/
Update RequiredTo play audio, update browser or Flash plugin.

Copyright 2021 WPLN News. To see more, visit WPLN News.

Many U.S. hospitals are struggling to find enough space and staff to treat COVID-19 patients. The surge in the coronavirus has made them come up with creative treatment and staffing solutions.

Transcript

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Hospitals across the nation have improvised to handle a crush of COVID cases. The Thanksgiving surge has not helped. In hard-hit Tennessee, health officials are warning that if the surge after Christmas and New Year's is anything like Thanksgiving, health systems will break. Blake Farmer of member station WPLN in Nashville reports on the struggle within hospitals to bend but not break.

BLAKE FARMER, BYLINE: One of the largest hospitals in the South, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, drew a line. This is all we can handle. Then a couple of weeks ago, they crossed it, says Robin Steaban. She's the chief nursing officer.

ROBIN STEABAN: There is a breaking point - we have not discovered that yet, but we know that there is one - when it's going to be impossible to do the kind of care we want to do for patients.

FARMER: That's not to say it's been pretty here at Vanderbilt. Dr. Todd Rice has been getting calls from as far away as Missouri and Virginia - hospitals with no room or no capabilities for complex COVID patients. Rice leads Vanderbilt's COVID ICU and has to tell them there's no room here either, at least not for their patient. And that feels wrong for a major medical center.

TODD RICE: We don't say that. We say, yes, bring them. We want to help them. You know, and here, we're having to really triage our resources and say, this person is, you know, a person who's sicker. And I can help, and I'm going to have to hold on you for right now.

FARMER: So a strange thing is happening. Even smaller hospitals that would usually refer critical cases to urban medical centers can't do that and are actually having to accept overflow from out of state.

MATT KING: It's pretty unusual for us to get patients, or it was unusual. Now we're getting them fairly regularly.

FARMER: Dr. Matt King is a pulmonary critical care physician at Sumner Regional Medical Center in Gallatin, Tenn. He had one patient flown in the other day from Kentucky who had looked for a bed from Ohio to Alabama, and this wasn't even a COVID patient. But COVID is what's causing the capacity issues. King says patients are hospitalized for weeks.

KING: It doesn't take very many patients staying for a week or two weeks for us to fill up. The hospital really relies on being able to get people in, get them well and get them home quickly so that we can take care of the next person that's sick.

FARMER: So doctors are doing things that feel risky, like sending patients home earlier than they typically would.

KING: Actually, right now I'm signing some paperwork to get a patient home with oxygen.

FARMER: Hospitals are also telling more people who show up to come back only if things get worse. Dr. James Parnell leads Tennessee's chapter of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine.

JAMES PARNELL: You've got to meet some pretty strict criteria to get admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 now.

FARMER: From outside the walls of these hospitals, most people wouldn't even notice how serious the situation is. Visitors are largely kept out. Patients aren't spilling into the street. Ambulances don't line up around the block. But inside, hospitals are constructing new COVID units. In an effort to avoid treating patients in hallways, emergency departments are doing flash renovations.

DUANE HARRISON: Just two days ago, we took down our lobby, and we made it a patient care area.

FARMER: Dr. Duane Harrison leads HCA's emergency department in Hendersonville, Tenn. He says a small cafe is now the waiting room, and it's working but on a hope and a prayer.

HARRISON: It is daunting to walk into the emergency room at 6 a.m. and see 13 people and know that there are no beds upstairs. And you're waiting for discharges and, unfortunately, deaths. But we keep making a place.

FARMER: Harrison says it's not comfortable, but it's better than the alternative. And hospitals will have to make even more space because they know additional cases are coming on account of all the holiday gatherings.

For NPR News, I'm Blake Farmer in Nashville.

KELLY: And this story comes from NPR's partnership with Nashville Public Radio and Kaiser Health News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

View this story on npr.org
Follow us for more stories like this

CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you.  As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.

Donate Today  

Coronavirus Newsletter

Get answers to your questions, the latest updates and easy access to the resources you need, delivered to your inbox.

 

Want to know what to expect? Here's a recent newsletter.

Thanks for subscribing!

We'll send you weekly emails so you can stay informed about the coronavirus in California.

Browse all newsletters

Most Viewed

California’s Capitol On Guard: Despite FBI Warnings, No Armed Protest In Sacramento On Sunday

California Coronavirus Updates: Extra Vaccine Doses Not Coming To California As Promised By Trump Administration

California Throws Open COVID Vaccines To Anyone 65 And Older

When Can I Get A COVID-19 Vaccine? How Will I Find Out? Answers To Your California Vaccine Questions.

No, Efforts To Recall California Gov. Newsom Are Not ‘A Coup’

We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter

Back to Top

  • CapRadio

    7055 Folsom Boulevard
    Sacramento, CA 95826-2625

    • (916) 278-8900
    • Toll-free (877) 480-5900
    • Email Us
    • Submit a News Tip
  • Contact Us

  • About Us

    • Contact Us / Feedback
    • Coverage
    • Directions
    • Jobs & Internships
    • Mission / Vision / Core Values
    • Press
    • Staff Directory
    • Board of Directors
  • Listening Options

    • Mobile App
    • On Air Schedules
    • Smart Speakers
    • Playlist
    • Podcasts
    • RSS
  • Connect With Us

    •  Facebook
    •  Twitter
    •  Instagram
    •  YouTube
  • Donate

  • Listen

  • Newsletters

CapRadio stations are licensed to California State University, Sacramento. © 2021, Capital Public Radio. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Website Feedback FCC Public Files: KXJZ KKTO KUOP KQNC KXPR KXSR KXJS. For assistance accessing our public files, please call 916-278-8900 or email us.