COVID-19 infections among JPS Hospital staffers up as community cases soar
COVID-19 cases among staff at Tarrant County’s only public hospital have rapidly increased as cases in the county soar.
At John Peter Smith Hospital, 144 out of 7,200 staff members are out of work with COVID-19, spokeswoman Diana Brodeur said on Friday. This week, 58 staff members have tested positive.
The hospital, which publicizes its COVID-19 data through a daily call-in recording, reports 545 employees have gotten COVID-19.
The recorded data includes only employees who were tested at the hospital’s employee testing site. It doesn’t include tests taken off-site, so the number could be higher. In total, 2,464 employees have been tested at the hospital.
Asked if the hospital is considering this an outbreak, Brodeur said no.
“The positive employee tests from the last 24 hours are not clustered in any one area of the hospital,” she said.
However, it is a situation that hospital officials are watching closely.
Brodeur said the majority of staff cases are caught from the community. When positive cases rise in the county, they rise in the hospital. Other Tarrant County hospitals made similar comments during the July peak. Earlier in December, Texas Health Resources Chief Executive Officer Barclay Berdan said it is frustrating to see people still not following COVID protocol.
Berdan expressed his thanks to the community for supporting hospital staff, but said that support extends beyond social media and that to truly support hospitals, residents should follow CDC recommendations.
“We want our communities to recover and be healthy,” he said. “The best way to do that is to follow the recommendations for preventing the spread of COVID. Wear a mask, stay out of crowds, stay a safe distance from people and wash your hands frequently.”
With a large number of employees out and workloads with cases rising (JPS was treating 133 COVID patients on Friday morning — the highest number ever reported by the hospital) finding workers to support hospitals has been a priority for health care facilities across the county.
Brodeur said the state has arranged for JPS and other local hospitals to get additional nurses and ICU nurses on staff on a temporary basis. Sixty nurses were designated to JPS in August. Over time, the group reduced to about 20. Thirty nurses and 14 ICU nurses arrived at JPS in December after the hospital made a second request to the state, she said.
At Texas Health Resources, the state sent about 100 nurses.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
JPS received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday morning and about 200 employees have received their shot. Vaccination is voluntary and the hospital has the capacity to vaccinate about 225 people a day.
“I’ve been exceptionally impressed with how the vaccine process has worked for JPS and how willing our staff is to get the vaccine,” Chief Executive Officer Robert Earley said. “The COVID-19 vaccine will certainly have an impact on the people of JPS, both on their morale and on keeping them at work.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 3:35 PM.
