GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — On Tuesday, 202 Spectrum Health staff members tested positive for COVID-19 system-wide. That sets the single-day record. Over the past seven days, 615 staff members have tested positive.
"I will tell you during the Delta surge in the fall, we were averaging typically between 20 and 40 team members a day," said Chad Tuttle, senior vice president of hospital operations, "So, to see 200 team members in a single day is significant for us. It's very challenging to our workforce."
Spectrum Health has 31,000 team members across all locations, including corporate, Priority Health and clinical health.
The significant increase in positive cases means a staffing challenge for West Michigan's largest hospital system. Tuttle said they are focusing resources on hospitals, emergency departments and urgent care centers. That means temporarily closing specific locations. These are non-emergent care options, and patients have been notified.
"But we do want the community to be prepared that we will likely have additional services that we may need to shut down in the coming days," said Tuttle, "Just because we simply don't have staff available."
Tuttle said about 99.9% of staff have complied with Spectrum Health's vaccine requirement. At least 50% of those eligible for a booster shot have had one. There may be more, but they received them elsewhere and the hospital is still compiling the data.
Spectrum Health is also following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new guidelines for isolation. Staff who tested positive and are asymptomatic can return to work after five days.
"We don't want team members who are sick, or currently symptomatic, returning to the workplace," said Tuttle, "But team members who have really had resolving condition within five days, or were really never symptomatic in the first place, are coming back to work after five days."
The hospital system was also granted aid from the Department of Defense, in the form of 22 additional nurses, doctors or respiratory therapists to help with an influx of COVID patients.
"There's 22 individuals on site, which helps," said Tuttle, "But, as you know, if we have 200 team members a day getting affected, 22 helps. But it's not the solution for us."
Tuttle said he does not expect more aid from the federal government in this capacity.
As the majority of Spectrum Health staff are vaccinated, the majority of patients admitted to the hospital with severe reactions to the virus are not. Tuttle urges vaccinations, saying even though the Omicron variant continues to spread, vaccination significantly helps prevent death and illness needing hospitalization.
"We expect that this is going to continue to spread," said Tuttle, "We expect that we will continue to experience severe staff shortages, we will likely have to temporarily close some locations and services. We're very concerned about what the next several weeks looks like, as Omicron is spreading so rapidly."
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