Hospitals in southwest Missouri issue call for respiratory therapists as cases surge

A surge of COVID-19 patients has prompted hospitals in southwest Missouri to issue calls for additional staff.

CoxHealth CEO Steve Edwards posted a “call to arms” Tuesday for respiratory therapists.

The Springfield hospital has 95 patients. One month ago, it had 35. Patients include a child and 10 patients in their 20s or 30s which was younger than in previous waves of the virus.

“Unfortunately our projections are showing that we are expecting our census to continue to go up for the next couple of weeks,” said Ashley Casad, vice president of clinical services.

The hospital is admitting 18 patients every day and that is expected to rise to 27 in the next two weeks.

Casad said staffing is the biggest challenge they are facing. The hospital has 150 traveling nurses with another 65 starting in the next month. Normally, they have about 40 traveling nurses.

Edwards said their respiratory therapy staff need reinforcements.

Respiratory therapists are essential to helping manage patients on ventilators, Casad said.

“When we have such a high proportion of our patients needing (ventilators), they play a really important role,” she said. “It’s also hard to come by respiratory therapists. In general there’s a shortage.”

Mercy Springfield also put out a call for respiratory therapist and ventilators.

On Monday, chief administrative officer Erik Frederick said they were running nearly 50 ventilators and expanding a second COVID-19 intensive care unit.

“If you’re a (respiratory therapist), call us,” he posted on social media.

The hospital also said it had a ventilator shortage and that other area hospitals were sending their supply.

Missouri has been hit hard by a wave of COVID-19 cases attributed to low vaccination rates, looser restrictions and the Delta variant.

This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 5:44 PM.

Katie Moore

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4312

Katie Moore was an enterprise and accountability reporter for The Star. She covered justice issues, including policing, prison conditions and the death penalty. She is a University of Kansas graduate and began her career as a reporter in 2015 in her hometown of Topeka, Kansas.