The state's largest health system says it's facing unprecedented capacity issues amid soaring demand for care and a shortage of workers. During a virtual press conference Tuesday, MaineHealth officials say they've had to resort to treating patients in hallways and diverting others to different hospitals due to the strain. The staffing crunch has been a long-standing issue in healthcare, but it's been made worse by COVID-19.
When Dr. Joel Botler, chief medical officer for Maine Medical Center checked the hospital's daily census on Tuesday morning, it was at 643 patients. A couple years ago, he said, A number that high was almost unheard of.
"Pre-pandemic when we would hit 640 or even less than that, it was when the wheels would start to fall off. Things would get very, very difficult. Today, every day, we average between 600-650 patients at Maine Medical Center," Botler said.
The hospital's ER is also full, with 61 patients as of Tuesday morning. And Botler said the COVID unit is near capacity with almost 40 patients.
"Every other area, our critical care units for non-COVID patients, our pediatric ICU patients, our children's hospital, Barbara Bush, labor and delivery, all them are at capacity today," Botler said. "So you can imagine the stress that occurs."
That stress is magnified because MaineHealth is facing a shortage of workers. And while that shortage has persisted for years both in Maine and nationwide, CEO Andy Mueller said it's been accelerated by the pandemic. MaineHealth's staff vacancy rate has doubled to 10%.
"The anxiety of the unknown, the need to develop a lot of personal courage to risk contracting the disease yourself, the fear of exposing others, and then working in some really difficult conditions in the midst of a pandemic, has really taken a toll," Mueller said.
The hospital workers that remain are facing high volumes of patients driven by COVID infections, mental health issues, and people who are sicker because they've delayed care. Some patients occupying beds are simply waiting to be discharged. Officials at Maine Medical Center say between 70 to 100 patients a day are ready to be transferred to skilled nursing facilities, which are also short-staffed. These capacity issues have forced Maine Med's ER to frequently divert patients to other hospitals, which are having issues of their own. At Mid Coast Parkview Health in Brunswick, president Lois Skillings said the hospital recently had 49 patients in the ER. Their capacity is 22.
"We have some stretcher in hallways, for example, where we're delivering care," Skillings said.
MaineHealth is the latest provider to sound the alarm about staffing issues. Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston announced earlier this month it would temporarily suspend admissions for pediatric and trauma patients due to workforce shortages exacerbated by the state's vaccination mandate. MaineHealth expects to lose up to 400 staff due to the mandate, but Mueller said it's still wise to require vaccinations.
"What we have found very clearly is that when we vaccinate our workforce, and we saw that beginning to occur back in December of last year. We saw a significant decline in the numbers of our care team that were out of work for COVID-related causes," Mueller said.
To reduce pressure on staff, all of MaineHealth's hospitals have cut back elective surgeries. Maine Medical Center reduced them by 30% in September and now how have a backlog of about 1500.
MaineHealth also implemented a $61 million wage adjustment in August to attract and retain workers and is investing $5 million next year in community colleges and higher education to develop a workforce pipeline. At the state level, officials are urging policy makers to invest in behavioral health and long term care. And Mueller said the health system also needs help from the community.
"And the first one is to get immunized, to get vaccinated against COVID-19," Mueller said.
Officials also said people with non-emergency issues should seek help at primary care offices and urgent clinics, instead of emergency rooms. Dr. Mark Fourre of Pen Bay Medical Center and Waldo County General Hospital said be patient when receiving treatment from health care workers. He said he's had many phlebotomists quit.
"One of the reasons is people have been incredibly unkind. So we've talked about people having to wait, and then they finally get into the chair to have their blood drawn and have been quite unkind on a regular basis to people just trying to draw their blood," Fourre said. "And eventually, some of them go, 'I'm not doing that anymore.'"
Now, Fourre said, his hospitals are facing a shortage of phlebotomists.
