California volunteer program dwindles
SACRAMENTO >> California desperately needs more medical workers at facilities swamped by coronavirus patients, but almost no help is coming from a volunteer program that Gov. Gavin Newsom created at the start of the pandemic. An army of 95,000 initially raised their hands, and just 14 are now working in the field.
Very few volunteers actually met qualifications for the California Health Corps, and only a tiny sliver have the high-level experience needed to help with the most serious virus cases that are stretching intensive care units to
the limit.
“Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out, and the goal is laudable,” said Stephanie Roberson, government relations director for the California Nurses Association.
Newsom formed the Health Corps in anticipation of the cascading crises that California and other states are now experiencing. COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and intensive care needs are spiraling out of control in the most populous state just as the rest of the nation sees a surge, overwhelming the usual pool of traveling nurses.
Similarly, New York had more than 80,000 medical volunteers respond to a call for help early in the pandemic when it was a hot spot, and some were deployed. But hospitals more often turned to temporary workers to fill the gap, said Jean Moore, director of the Health Workforce Research Center at University at Albany.
Other states, including Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania, tried variations of recruiting volunteers with limited results.
“A volunteer corps assumes that it’s pretty easy to slot people in,” said Sean Clarke, executive vice dean and professor at New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing. “Figuring out how to do that still hasn’t been fleshed out, I guess.”
California officials say they need 3,000 temporary medical workers but had about one-third of those as of Thursday. As one result, hospitals are waiving the state’s nurse-to-patient ratios, which can mean less care for critically ill patients.
Newsom had envisioned Health Corps volunteers helping fill in the gaps at health facilities. Those who qualified include retired or inactive doctors, nurses and respiratory care practitioners. Though they’re volunteers, they’re paid what the state calls competitive wages.
Of the 95,000 who first expressed interest in the corps, only about a third had valid professional licenses and about 4,600 qualified. Only 850 actually then signed up, a number that has largely remained static despite the governor’s repeated pleas to participate.
Some of the volunteers “don’t have the training at the highest levels to be helpful right now,” California Hospital Association spokesman David Simon said.
“It could just be that nurses know that this just might not be the safest place to work,” Roberson said.
The state Emergency Medical Services Authority in June reported being overwhelmed with the initial crush of Health Corps applicants while employees were busy coordinating other urgent pandemic responses. The program itself proved confusing for local disaster coordinators, wrote Craig Johnson, chief of the authority’s Disaster Medical Services Division.
Despite the shortfalls, the governor said the program “has been incredibly effective,” with members having worked at more than 140 facilities statewide.
About 300 were sent to long- term care facilities early in the pandemic, 450 were used during the summer surge and 530 went to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities in the fall.
Corps spokesman Rodger Butler said some have worked in intensive care units and that the program will keep working “to fulfill unmet needs throughout the state.”
T he state has spent nearly $2.1 million on the program, money it hopes to largely recoup from the federal government or private medical facilities that used corps members.