KC hospital strained by COVID-19 gets help from National Disaster Medical System team
As hospital resources around the metro have become strained in response to a new wave of COVID-19 patients and staffing shortages, a small team of medical professionals has been dispatched to Kansas City’s Research Medical Center through a federally-run program.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has sent a 15-member team with the National Disaster Medical System to assist health care workers at Research Medical Center. The team is being brought in to “help care for patients during this most significant surge of COVID-19 in our region,” HCA Midwest Health, which runs the hospital, said in a news release Friday.
“HCA Midwest Health’s leadership has never been prouder to work alongside such a dedicated and committed family of physicians, clinicians and colleagues,” the news release said. “We are incredibly grateful and humbled for these resources — and this demonstrates that as a community, and nation, we are indeed stronger, together.”
The medical professionals are to be assigned to the hospital’s COVID-19 Unit and Emergency room along with other areas. The team includes physicians, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, safety logistics specialists, and administrative and support staff specialists.
Cases in Kansas City hospitals have surged again in recent weeks following the emergence of the Omicron variant. As of Tuesday, the metropolitan area — which includes Jackson, Clay, Platte, Wyandotte and Johnson counties — was seeing a record-high seven-day average of 2,100 cases per day, according to data maintained by The Star.
Hospitals have been grappling with a sudden increase in new patients paired with staffing shortages. Several have described gridlocked emergency rooms and a lack of hospital beds as record numbers of employees are calling in sick with COVID-19.
On Wednesday, for example, The University of Kansas Health System was short roughly 640 of its 13,500 staff members.
During a conference call that included 18 chief medical officers earlier this week, Dr. Kim Megow, chief medical officer for HCA Midwest, warned that the situation looked as though health care professionals may have to put in place “what’s referred to as crisis standards of care.”
“It is basically what the military does during wartime, which is deciding who gets care and who does not. Who gets a chance at living and who is left to die. And that is really dire, but I think it’s important to say that.” Megow said at the time.
“That is how bad it could get if we are completely overwhelmed — and we’re at that point already — and we suddenly have an onslaught of additional patients. There have to be tough decisions made, and no one on this call wants to be faced with making those decisions.”
The Star’s Lisa Gutierrez contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 11:32 PM.
