Inside Oregon’s Hospitals in COVID-19 Crisis

Seriously sick, dying patients: and not enough people to help them.  That’s the struggle in Oregon’s hospitals, and because of it, the governor’s promising relief.

Intensive Care Nurse Clarissa Carson describes the crisis.

“Every day we see just, the body boxes roll out one after the other, and as soon as we clean the room we get somebody back in there. It’s the worst we’ve ever seen.”

I.C.U. Manager Kelsey Robinson sees more critically ill people coming in every day at the Asante Rogue Regional Center in Medford.  She says that’s because  many of them are not vaccinated.

“Our community is getting ripped apart, by the people who don’t believe in the vaccine, the people who do.”

To help hospitals like theirs cope with the spike in COVID-19 infections, Governor Kate Brown announced the state’s made deals with two companies.  Jogan Health solutions and A.M.N. Healthcare will send  hundreds of workers to health care facilities.

They’ll help Asante Hospitals in Ashland, Grants Pass and Medford, Mercy Medical center in Roseburg, and the St. Charles Heath system in Bend and Redmond, plus others as the need arises.

They’ll deploy “crisis teams” of hundreds of nurses, respiratory therapists, paramedics and nursing assistants, to the hardest hit parts of the state.

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