GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) — Staffing shortages and an influx of Covid patients continue to challenge local health systems.
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"We have not seen this level of disease activity since December of 2020," Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake said at a Wednesday media briefing. "There are 1,630 Wisconsinites hospitalized with Covid-19 and that is an increase of 212 patients in just one week."
The DHS reports90 percent of Northeast Wisconsin's hospital beds are in use. In the Fox Valley, 98 percent are occupied.
"We are already at a place in some parts of our state where there are few to no ICU beds available in particular," Timberlake said.
Across Wisconsin, 418 Covid patients are in intensive care units. And the state lists Brown, Outagamie, Winnebago and Kewaunee as counties with critically high case activity.
"[A state] staffing contract, expanding CNA training, bringing in additional federal resources, we will do everything we can to prevent a situation where we have no hospital capacity," Timberlake said.
Locally at Bellin Health, Clinical Support Director Jason Perry says the system is treating 26 to 28 coronavirus patients a day. And 80 percent are unvaccinated.
"We're extending hours," he said. "We're going later into the evening. We're using weekend hours to accommodate all of the patients needs that are coming in so we don't let requests fall off."
Beds are available at Bellin, but Perry says his hospitals admitted 14 new Covid patients on Monday.
"We open up pods, short-term use pods until we can get another round of regular beds open," he said. "It's just constant adjustments like that."
Utilizing surge planning and even repurposing staff, Bellin is working to see primary care clients and all others in need.
"We figure it out," Perry said. "If someone needs to get in here and we have a critical and urgent need, we get it figured it out. The public always comes first."
