A hospital ship on the Coast? With health care system in crisis, MS is requesting one
The state of Mississippi is requesting a military hospital ship to increase capacity for treating a soaring number of COVID-19 patients — something Gov. Tate Reeves failed to acknowledge when the Sun Herald asked him twice Thursday afternoon what he would be asking of the federal government.
Instead, ABC News reported the development based on a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services planning document, according to a story Thursday.
“A Mississippi health department official confirmed Wednesday that the state has requested that the federal government send a military hospital ship such as the USNS Comfort, which treated over 180 COVID-19 patients in New York City last year,” the ABC story says.
Reeves, who was in Diamondhead earlier Thursday afternoon, told the Sun Herald that he would be talking later in the day with federal officials about the need for 920 additional health care workers for the state and other needs. When asked about those other needs, he did not mention the hospital ship.
Gov. Reeves downplays hospital bed shortage
Reeves has downplayed the severity of the state’s COVID-19 crisis by saying that hospitals have been fuller during the pandemic than they are now as the highly contagious delta variant leads to a record number of cases.
He said 1,444 patients were hospitalized earlier in the pandemic, with 1,400 hospitalized now.
He also said the media has overplayed the opening of a field hospital for COVID patients, including older children, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center on Friday. He said UMMC has used a field hospital at previous times in the pandemic.
Earlier in the pandemic, Reeves had said a field hospital could be set up at Camp Shelby, but the state does not currently have the medical personnel to staff it.
The Mississippi State Department of Health has requested a Disaster Medical Assistance Team for the UMMC field hospital and a total of 920 additional medical personnel to staff hospitals, which are down 2,000 nurses, Reeves told the Sun Herald.
Reeves said he expects some of those federal medical professionals to arrive Friday at the field hospital in Jackson.
Unlike Reeves, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs is sounding every alarm he can. He said the state has requested hundreds of nurses, dozens of doctors and and about 200 respiratory therapists. Hospitals are expected to see even more patients as COVID cases climb, reaching a record high of 4,412 on Thursday.
“We’re willing to leave no stone unturned and that includes the USNS Comfort,” Dobbs said during a late-afternoon news conference about UMMC’s field hospital. “The main thing we need is the personnel. Staffing is sort of our main bottleneck.”
“It’s not necessarily that we need the ship, but we need personnel from anywhere we can get them and we will strive to.”
He said he did not believe the ship would be coming during the height of hurricane season.
COVID patients stuck in ER at MS Coast hospital
Coast hospitals are overtaxed, too, offering sign-on bonuses to attract nurses and respiratory therapists.
“I am surprised that it has come to the point where the state of Mississippi is having to request a hospital ship to come to the Coast because we have not done what we needed to do to protect ourselves,” said Richard Roberson, vice president of state advocacy at the Mississippi Hospital Association
“The tools have been in place for a long time now. We’ve had options. We’ve had opportunities to practice social distancing, to wear a mask, to get a vaccine.
“I think the data clearly shows that nearly all of the hospitalizations are attributable to nonvaccinated patients.”
Memorial Hospital CEO Kent Nicaud confirmed the overcrowding at the Coast’s largest hospital.
“Right now, we have about 95 COVID patients in beds and are minus 23 beds needed,” Nicaud said. “That means I have 23 people in the ER right now waiting for beds.”
Singing River Health System Lee Bond earlier in the day told Coast business leaders what he saw walking out of the ER a couple nights ago. Ambulances weren’t able to unload patients, people were on stretchers in the hallway, people were gasping for air in the waiting room, “just sheer misery.”
“I wondered to myself, is this what it might look like in a world war?”
This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 7:11 PM.
