MUSKEGON, Mich. — This week, federal assistance arrived to two Michigan health systems to help with surging COVID-19 hospitalizations. Spectrum Health welcomed a team of six people Tuesday Morning, and expects 22 doctors, registered nurses, and respiratory therapists Thursday. Beaumont Health in Metro Detroit also received help.
Many other facilities in Michigan have also requested assistance from the US Department of Defense. However, according to a spokesperson with Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), teams are not available at this time.
Mercy Health Muskegon is one of the hospitals awaiting assistance. Justin Grill, Chief Medical Officer, said working at the hospital lately has been "strained" and "difficult."
"It's like a slow boiling situation that just won't go away," said Grill, "We're in a tough spot."
Grill is hopeful assistance will come through. He is in conversation with MDHHS, and said they recognize the dire situation they are in.
At Mercy Health Muskegon, they have 75 COVID patients, and are at 98% capacity.
RELATED: Federal hospital help to arrive in West Michigan Tuesday as patient counts hit all-time highs
While they wait for additional assistance, Grill said they are using team-based nursing, hiring travelling nurses, and extending the ability of existing nurses. However, that creates its own set of challenges.
"It's difficult to come to work and be busy all of the time," said Grill, "It's difficult to come to work and realize I'm not doing as good of a job as I normally would be able to do, because of the resource constrained environment that we're in. And then to deal with things like significant medical morbidity, and death on top of that, is truly a challenge for our staff."
This is the fourth surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations. While at the moment, Mercy Health Muskegon is seeing fewer patients than the end of the year surge in 2020, the hospital is feeling the pinch harder.
"It was a notably different situation, because everything had closed down," said Grill, "Everybody was redeployed to the hospital. The federal government had passed the CARES Act, which allowed for funding to make up for the holes that we had financially. This time around, all that is gone."
Grill also said this surge started much earlier than last year's.
About 80% of COVID patients at the hospital are unvaccinated, while 90% of those on ventilators are unvaccinated.
The aid to Spectrum Health and Beaumont Health follows a request earlier in November by the Whitmer administration and Michigan Health and Hospital Association to the US Department of Defense for aid.
RELATED VIDEO: Federal hospital help to arrive in West Michigan Tuesday as patient counts hit all-time highs
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.