Many changes at South Shore Hospital amid omicron: From surgery to National Guard aid

WEYMOUTH – South Shore Health is grappling with staffing shortages that are pushing some hospitals across the country to the brink as cases of the omicron variant continue to rise and another surge of COVID-19 hits the state.

South Shore Health President and CEO Dr. Allen Smith said the health system, like others in Massachusetts, has postponed in-patient elective surgeries, launched incentive programs to attract new staff and brought in 10 members of the National Guard to help with various tasks.

State data shows that 86 percent of intensive care unit beds and 93 percent of non-intensive care beds across the state were occupied as of Tuesday, the most recent data available. Statewide, 2,426 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday – a number similar to what hospitals saw during the surge last winter.

Smith said South Shore Hospital is nearing full capacity and working to educate patients about when they should go to the emergency room, their primary care doctor or an urgent care center.

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When the pandemic first hit, Smith said the emergency department was quiet as people hesitated to seek care. Now, he said the hospital is grappling with a huge surge in COVID, coupled with patients coming in with other illnesses.

"In this wave, we're seeing tremendous amounts of COVID as we're seeing nationally, and we're also seeing the normal things we see, plus the impact of delayed care," he said. "We are full with both COVID and non-COVID."

Smith said the health system has also implemented a labor pool to move staff around between departments and roles as needed, and relaunched its incident command structure.

“It means we have a daily structure and leadership structure in which we can prioritize and make critical decisions about staffing, visitation policies, what stays open and what closes and anything we need to do to support our community, patients and colleagues,” he said.

Smith said staffing shortages have been an issue for several months — many staff members retired during the summer months or left for other opportunities.

South Shore Health created a referral program that provided bonuses of up to $10,000 for employees who brought in new hires in areas with shortages, and also offers a grow-your-own program for staff looking to train in a certain area.

Smith said the latest COVID-19 wave coupled with patients coming in with other needs has exacerbated the staffing issue.

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“We’ve been working very hard to address that and we’re in a better position now than we were a few months ago,” he said. “So we’re starting to come back, and now we have this acute exacerbation.”

While some health systems have started letting providers who have tested positive for COVID-19 to continue treating patients, Smith said staff members at South Shore Health who test positive are out of work for seven days and must be symptom free to return.

That policy is more conservative than guidance given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recently cut isolate guidelines to five days for people who are asymptomatic or have recovered from symptoms.

"We know that may need to adapt like everybody else. The state is certainly giving a lot of latitude in that regard," Smith said.

Susan Griffin, South Shore Health's director of public relations and communications, said the number of staff out with COVID-19 is fluid, and as 60 staff members test positive, another 60 may be returning to work after recovering from the virus.

"A health system vaccine mandate, combined with the differences in this latest variant, have helped us stabilize," she said in an email. "We have reached a point where the colleagues going out sick are fairly well balanced with colleagues returning."

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While the state is giving hospitals some flexibility for nursing staff ratios and guidance for creating capacity in “alternative spaces," Smith said the health system is trying to avoid that.

"We have to recognize that taking care of COVID patients is more work for nurses and nursing assistants due to the (personal protective equipment) and the complexity of it, so we want to be very mindful," he said.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: South Shore Hospital grapples with omicron surge, staffing shortages