Recent weeks have been the most difficult of the pandemic for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center, with fewer treatment options for a record numbers of covid-19 patients, the hospital's chief executive officer said Wednesday.
Dr. Steppe Mette told the University of Arkansas board of trustees that a lack of available employees due to covid-19 -- along with health care workers at times being "demonized" -- have also contributed to the hospital having "a pretty demoralized staff right now."
UAMS leaders including Chancellor Cam Patterson and Mette provide updates on hospital activity at most meetings of the 10-person trustees board.
"I think it's fair to say that the last two to three weeks have been the hardest for UAMS during the entire covid pandemic," Mette said.
Mette described to trustees differences in treating the omicron coronavirus variant compared to previous strains.
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"There's only one monoclonal antibody that works, and that's in very short supply," Mette said. "We only get about 30 doses per week, when we could use about four or five times that amount."
The federal government determines allocation amounts by state for the monoclonal antibody treatments, which can be delivered to patients through a vein or via injection, according to the state Department of Health's website.
Oral antiviral medications, which Mette said are mainly used for outpatient treatment, are also scarce, he added.
"We also get very few doses there and, more often than not, have no doses to give out," Mette said.
The hospital's count of 99 covid-19 patients on Tuesday -- not including three or four in the emergency department -- was typical of daily totals at the hospital over the last two to three weeks, Mette said.
By comparison, last summer the number of patients peaked at 75, Mette said.
Mette said a "surge plan" created in April 2020 included preparations for up to 140 patients.
"The problem is that we don't have the same level of staffing that we had back in the spring of 2020," Mette said.
He said more than 850 medical center employees were in covid-19 quarantine last week, or "about 12% of our clinical staff." In addition, the hospital also has vacant nursing and respiratory therapy positions, he said.
To try to make up for the shortfall, Mette said the hospital has hired about 195 contract nurses.
"But that comes at a pretty significant cost burden to us," Mette said. "We are spending somewhere between $2 and $4 million per month on contract labor above what it would be costing us to have our own employees do the work."
Mette said he "constantly" hears "that there is less general public support for health care workers, that they're often demonized," and that this leads to employee unhappiness.
"Just the the problem with divisiveness in our country, especially aimed at health care, is quite much of a problem," Mette said.
A concern is that when it comes to hiring health care staff, "this is going to be a multi year problem for us," Mette said. He praised those at UAMS as "a phenomenal group of hard working, mission-driven employees who work hard every day."