Long-term care facilities now filling up, in need of more staff after taking in patients from overwhelmed hospitals
By ‘A’ali’i Dukelow
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HONOLULU (KITV) — To free up bed space, inundated hospitals across Hawai’i have been discharging patients to long-term care facilities — but now, those centers are starting to fill up as well.
The head of the Healthcare Association of Hawai’i said it is trying to secure federal funding for 200 extra healthcare workers to staff long-term care facilities.
“The licensed nursing staffing shortage in long-term care has been very challenging because with the hospitals in need of freeing up beds and the long-term cares not having enough nursing staff, it’s very difficult to continue to admit,” said Denise Mackey, Hilo Medical Center’s Director of Critical Access Hospitals and Long Term Care in East Hawai’i.
According to Mackey, the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home has already stopped patient intakes from Hilo Medical because of a lack of nurses.
“We need around-the-clock coverage, so it takes a good four to five to get you around the clock to open up another zone,” Mackey added.
In addition, the extended care facilities at Ka’u Hospital and Hilo Medical are both at capacity right now, Mackey reported.
To help ease overcrowding, Hale Ho’ola Hamakua has been taking on some of Hilo Medical’s and Queen’s North Hawai’i Community Hospital’s patients.
Over the past two weeks, it received more than a dozen people.
“We’re approaching our capacity as far as our beds,” Mackey said, adding that she is urging the public to get vaccinated and avoid risky activities that could potentially land them in the hospital.
Mackey is hopeful hospitals and long-term care facilities can continue efforts to free up space for patients, but she is not certain they can.
“I can’t predict what’s going to happen in the hospital and whether they’re going to see more influx of COVID patients and if the nursing homes are going to reach capacity or not particularly given the level of staffing available in long-term care,” Mackey said.
KITV-4 reached out to the Healthcare Association of Hawai’i for an update on the state’s effort to boost staffing, but they could not provide one as of Thursday.
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