Janet Hadar

President

UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, N.C.

ON REDEPLOYING STAFF:

The response across the board has been one of terrific collaboration. Nurses are now rotating in and out of the COVID units just so caregivers in that area can have a break. It’s both emotionally and physically draining. And you know the stress isn’t just on our caregivers. I was in our kitchen last week, and I was reminded that our cooks are in front of hot grills for eight hours wearing masks. They do it and they do it with a great attitude, but it has impacted every aspect of our workforce.

ON STAFF FATIGUE:

In March, everyone, myself included, expected this quick spike, like what we were observing in New York and New Jersey, but we soon came to realize that this is going to go on. We will have COVID patients here in a year’s time. They are sick, many of them are quite sick, and it adds to the ICU burden. We were quite a busy medical center prior to COVID, running between 90% to 92% occupancy, and as we returned to more scheduled care, we are right back to that same occupancy. It’s busy. There is no downtime when you come to work here.