Hospitals may let infected employees keep working
If the omicron variant continues to spread across Tennessee, hospitals may soon turn to a strategy that once felt unthinkable: Letting infected employees stay on the job. Hospitals across the state could ask doctors and nurses who are infected with coronavirus but still well enough to keep working to continue to treat patients.
To be clear, this strategy is a desperate one. It has been recommended as a “last resort” by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and recently employed by some embattled hospitals in California and Rhode Island.
In Tennessee, where hospital staff are in short supply, multiple hospitals have considered allowing infected but asymptomatic employees to keep working, said Andrea Turner, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Hospital Association.
Turner said the Association is not aware of any hospitals having actually done this as of earlier this week. But it remains a possibility.
“It could be implemented on a hospital-by-hospital basis, based on a determination that it is necessary to maintain the staffing levels required to provide adequate care in accordance with CDC guidance,” Turner said in an email this week.
That CDC guidance, which was recently updated to account for the increased transmissibility of the omicron variant, urges hospitals not to use infected staff unless they absolutely must. But if they must, infected employees should only treat patients who already have COVID-19 in all but dire circumstances, the guidance states. Infected employees should also be masked any time they are around any co-workers and separate themselves from others when they remove the mask to eat.
If a Tennessee hospital decides to do this, it won’t be a decision reached lightly. Hospital officials said two weeks ago they were facing the worst staffing shortage of the pandemic due to rising admissions and unprecedented infections among medical staff.
And the virus has only gotten worse since then.
Tennessee is recording more than 16,200 new infections per day and 41 percent of tests reported to the state are positive, according to weekly virus data released Wednesday. About 3,200 people were hospitalized with the virus as of Tuesday, according to the CDC.
Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey said Wednesday the omicron wave appeared to be cresting in metropolitan areas and rural areas are expected to follow in a matter of weeks. Epidemiological curves released by the health department shows an infection decline in Nashville and Memphis last week, but the virus continued to surge in Knoxville and across most other counties.
In related news, HCA Healthcare – the largest hospital company in the U.S., headquartered in Nashville – announced this week it will once again require its health care workers to be vaccinated against the virus. HCA and some other large hospital companies paused this requirement in December while waiting for the Supreme Court to affirm its legality.
Finally, the Biden Administration this week launched a new effort to make rapid, at-home COVID-19 tests available to all Americans for free. Tests can be ordered at Covidtests.gov and you are encouraged to order them now so they will be readily available when you need them. The White House also announced it will distribute 400 N95 masks to the public for free, some of which should be available next week.
Brett Kelman is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be reached at 615-259-8287 or at brett.kelman@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter at @brettkelman.