The COVID-19 numbers don’t yet look anything like the spring 2020 tidal wave. Like hospitals across the United States, however, Morristown Medical Center is keeping a close eye on the Omicron variant.
“We are planning for the worst, as we should for our community,” hospital President Trish O’Keefe told Morristown Green on Wednesday.
Preparations include aggressive efforts to recruit staff, ramp up booster shots for employees, and advocate for the public to get fully vaccinated and continue masking and social distancing.
“Vaccinations are so important. Right now they are saving lives,” said O’Keefe, as concerns are growing nationwide about a surge of infections after the holidays.
This week the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 73 percent of new cases in the United States are caused by the Omicron strain.
On Tuesday, New Jersey’s seven-day average for new positive tests exceeded 6,000 for the first time in the pandemic, and hospitalizations across the Garden State surpassed 2,000 patients for the first time in eight months, reported The Star-Ledger.
At the height of the pandemic in April 2020, Morristown Medical Center had about 300 COVID patients. Right now it has about 50, with only a “very, very small number” on ventilators, O’Keefe said.
Forty COVID patients were seen on Tuesday in the emergency department. Most were able to be treated and sent home, O’Keefe said.
She suspects many of these cases were from the Omicron variant, though she could not yet say how many, or how many of these patients were not vaccinated.
“We’re trying to get a sense of the data right now on Omicron,” she said, noting the hospital had seen a correlation between unvaccinated patients and the Delta variant.
O’Keefe said the crucial message remains the same:
“We need to get vaccinations and, more importantly, boosters, in people’s arms.”
NOW HIRING!
Like employers around the country, Atlantic Health, the parent of Morristown Medical Center, has struggled to maintain staffing levels through the long pandemic. Many staffers have opted to retire, O’Keefe said.
One hundred new hires will start next week at the hospital, she said. The medical center, ranked as New Jersey’s top hospital for four straight years by U.S. News and World Report, is alerting schools to openings for registered nurses, respiratory therapists, environmental specialists, food service workers, and patient transporters.
“We’re looking for full-, part-time and per diem. All shifts,” O’Keefe said.
President Biden has said he will make 1,000 military medical personnel available to hospitals next month. The state health department and New Jersey Hospital Association are monitoring that situation, said O’Keefe, who would welcome federal personnel in a surge.
“Of course, if the numbers continue to increase similar to what we saw last year, yeah, for sure,” she said.
The hospital also is redoubling efforts to administer booster shots–“hundreds of shots a day”– to employees, she said.
More COVID testing also is essential, according to O’Keefe.
Atlantic Health has multiple testing and vaccination sites, and Morris County officials are mulling whether to revive their testing operation. At a minimum, the county needs a guarantee of adequate testing supplies and timely processing of results before such a massive re-launch, according to sources in county government.
President Biden also has announced plans to make 500 million free rapid test kits available to the public via a federal website, starting next month.
‘A LITTLE TIRED’
The prospect of another surge is daunting for staff, acknowledged O’Keefe, who spent much of her career as a registered nurse.
Morristown Medical Center has expanded its behavioral health services to help staff cope with pandemic pressures. Many elective surgeries taper off during the holidays, and O’Keefe expressed hope that staff members can catch some down time with their loved ones.
“I will say, healthcare workers are a resilient group. You know, they support each other. It’s been a very much a can-do attitude. And no job is too small or big for anyone. So it’s really a team approach,” she said.
“This time of year, with everyone’s personal responsibilities, and balancing the holidays, I think all are a little tired, and with a little less sleep than usual. But they get through, and they safely care for our patients.”
Someday, she anticipates looking back on this difficult time with immense pride — pride in her front-line colleagues, and in community volunteers who still are donating food to them as a gesture of appreciation and concern.
“This is something we never thought would happen in our careers. But it did. I believe the healthcare community met this terrible pandemic head on and worked together to keep our communities as safe as possible,” O’Keefe said.
“And I’m just so proud to be a healthcare worker, a nurse in the state of New Jersey, and at Atlantic health. Just very proud… and so proud of our community in general, as well.”
