The Pennsylvania Department of Health’s first health care strike team deployed over the weekend in Upper Bucks County.
The team was deployed to Grand View Hospital in West Rockhill Township, which is just outside of Perkasie, starting Saturday, according to Acting Health Secretary Keara Klinepeter.
The first strike team was made up of 10 registered nurses and will help for two weeks. The nurses are assigned to help with the hospital’s night shift, a difficult shift to staff amid the COVID-19 surge.
A third of critical care beds in the hospital are filled with COVID-19 patient needing treatment, a hospital official said.
The staffing crunch is created by the influx of those ill from the pandemic, patients coming in for other problems, and an upheaval in employment situation in the medical field.
No other Bucks County hospitals are being served by state strike teams, which are separate from federal teams assisting hospitals in Scranton and York.
Klinepeter said other hospitals have made requests to the state through county emergency management agencies to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. Decisions will be made in the coming days, and strike team medical staff can be at hospitals within 48 hours.
Each strike team will be customized to meet the needs of the medical season when possible, Klinepeter said.
Strike team members may include physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, and respiratory therapists, officials said.
The strike teams work in partnership with ambulance squads, nursing homes, COVID-19 testing centers, and other government agencies.
The nurses are being provided through a contract from the state health department with GHR Healthcare. There will be no cost to hospitals, and the state will be seeking reimbursement from the federal government.
“The intent is that these staff will fill in for a limited time while hospitals develop their own longer-term sustainable staffing solutions,” Klinepeter said.
State and hospital officials have urged residents to avoid seeking COVID-19 tests at hospitals.
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