(KNSI) – A United States Air Force medical team is at St. Cloud Hospital helping treat COVID-19 patients and giving medical staff some help. CentraCare Health held a press conference Monday to update on the arrival of the 23 member Joint Task Force Civil Support unit.
“Their staff is fully integrated with ours. So there’s not a separate unit. They are working shoulder to shoulder and with our troops and in a very integrated fashion, which is a really a marvelous model. They are working in our emergency room, our ICU, their nurses are with our nurses, their doctors are with our doctors,” said CentraCare President and CEO Dr. Ken Holmen. He says the medical facility is getting close to being overrun.
“How do we balance the incredible demands of COVID with the demand for other healthcare services from our greater geography? That is the challenge. We don’t have enough people to do both at the same time. But clearly having the strike team join us creates an additional capacity that is desperately needed and a lift in our spirits.”
He says CentraCare’s staff is getting burned out after 20 months of treating patients with the coronavirus. As of noon Monday, the healthcare system had 136 COVID-19 patients, most of them being treated at St. Cloud Hospital. Officials say 28 of those patients are in the ICU, and 24 need ventilators. At this time last year, CentraCare had between 175 and 180 COVID Patients. However, they had more employees to treat the sick. Holmen says that’s why he’s thankful for the help.
“An extra 23 sets of hands, minds, eyes and ears, talent, and skills all together. Which, in a critical care setting, is a really big thing. It’s a good thing.”
Photo Taken by Jake Judd (KNSI News)
The team is on a 30-day mission at the request of Minnesota and CentraCare; however, the number of days could be extended. Dr. Holmen says at least two calculations will go into that decision, including hospital capacity.
“You can have a bucket of water and it’s not overflowing visibly until that last drop runs over. And we don’t want to be that bucket with the last drop that runs over and that’d be we’ll take care of folks.”
He says the second calculation will have to do with worker burnout and fatigue. The health care system will need to make sure they have enough staff to take care of the sick. Officials say they’ve had to find other care for 500 patients in the last month because there was no hospital space. CentraCare Health says there are around 1,700 positions that need to be filled.
The COVID-19 test positivity rate in Central Minnesota is at 17.9% as of Monday afternoon. Doctors say when you have an 18% positivity rate in the broader community, that means a lot of folks are still going to get sick.
CentraCare’s vaccine mandate for employees goes into effect on December 15th. St. Cloud is the 18th place where the task force has helped treat communities swamped by the pandemic.
Officials are pleading with the public to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
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