Note to California hospitals: Short-term staffing help now available as coronavirus cases surge

Petaluma Valley Hospital and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital are among the first hospitals getting outside nursing help via Sacramento to deal with escalating staffing shortages as COVID-19 cases surge throughout California. But there also is at least one health care system in the North Bay that has yet to receive a response to its request for help.

As of Jan. 5, the number of hospitalizations statewide due to confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases increased by 335 from the day before, according to the state, further demonstrating the dire need for more staffing, including in the North Bay’s hospitals.

The state Governor’s Office of Emergency Services in a Jan. 3 press release said California’s Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid System — most often used in response to wildfires, floods and other natural emergencies — on Dec. 30 deployed 16 firefighter paramedics and six firefighter EMT’s to UC Irvine Medical Center, Kern Adventist Health, Barstow Community Hospital and the 80-bed Petaluma Valley Hospital.

Santa Rosa Memorial, a 338-bed acute care hospital, more recently received eight medical professionals from the National Guard who are helping in its emergency department, said Steven Buck, executive director of communications for Providence St. Joseph Health, which operates both Santa Rosa Memorial and Petaluma Valley Hospital, as well as Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa.

NorthBay Healthcare, which operates NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield and NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville — with 24 and six licensed ICU beds, respectively — also needs help but is in limbo, according to Steve Huddleston, vice president for public affairs.

“We have made multiple requests through the state process, but we have not yet received help,” Huddleston said, adding NorthBay Healthcare has made a request once a week for the last five weeks. “We are waiting and hoping.”

Petaluma Valley Hospital on Dec. 31 was notified it would be receiving three paramedics from Solano County and six emergency medical technicians from Sonoma County for two weeks, Buck said in an email statement.

“Those professionals arrived on Friday, Jan. 1, and have been deployed to assist nurses in various parts of the hospital,” he said. “With the surge in COVID cases throughout the county, the related increase in cases coming into the hospital, and the availability challenge of traveling nurses, this aid is very welcome and came at a good time.” At press time, 25% of the hospital’s patients were being treated for COVID-19, he said.

The Business Journal previously reported on the gravity of the staffing shortage as coronavirus cases spike.

“The No. 1 challenge right now is a national shortage of nurses — something California didn’t have to initially contend with because the state surged early on and had access to traveling nurse agencies, which provide registered nurses and other health care workers to fill short-term needs,” Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the Sacramento-based California Hospital Association, previously told the Business Journal.

“What’s happened this time as California's second surge was later than the rest of the United States, all of those travel nurses are deployed elsewhere, largely in the Midwest and the mountain states,” Coyle said.

Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, stated in a Dec. 31 news release that the deployments are “an important first step in helping health facilities get the staffing resources they need.”

“Strengthening the public health workforce is critical to our ability to protect lives during this latest wave of COVID-19 cases.”

This story has been updated to include NorthBay Healthcare.