Juneau’s Bartlett Regional Hospital is one of 20 Alaska care facilities the state has authorized to use its emergency guidelines, known as crisis standards of care, to help navigate this phase of the pandemic.
“Right now, currently at Bartlett, we’re nowhere near in a position where we’d have to prioritize care for our patients,” said Kim McDowell, the chief nursing officer at Bartlett.
But she said the stress on the statewide system affects Juneau.
“So it’s kind of like a game of Jenga a little bit, you know, you kind of balance everything and keep it kind of steady. But one thing could just tip it over,” she said.
She said if Bartlett gets a surge of seriously ill patients that it can’t transfer because Anchorage facilities are full, the crisis standards guidelines will provide the framework for tough decisions.
As of Monday afternoon, there were six patients with active COVID-19 infections in the hospital. But that doesn’t include COVID patients being treated who are no longer infectious. McDowell says she sees many people who have been hospitalized for COVID return later with lingering symptoms that require another hospitalization.
McDowell says the hospital did not make the crisis decision lightly.
“It’s mixed emotions, it is a kind of realization that this is where we are in this pandemic. And some organizations and hospitals are having to make this,” she said. “As a nurse, that’s heartbreaking, because you know that those decisions aren’t easy.”
Crisis standards will be in place until hospitals have sufficient resources to offer the usual standard of care to all patients.
Bartlett is getting help. As part of the state’s contract to relieve exhausted health care workers, six nurses are already in Juneau. The hospital expects three more nurses, two certified nursing assistants and two surgical technicians to arrive in the coming days.
“It’s a huge impact. I mean, it allows us to make sure that our nurse-to-patient ratios are at a normal level. It allows staff to be able to have a higher census, it allows us to be more flexible with elective surgeries,” McDowell said.
The regional hospital is still offering outpatient elective surgeries. Procedures that require an overnight stay are assessed separately.
Officials from the state and the hospital continue to encourage Alaskans to get vaccinated.
