Hospitals in Nebraska trying to solve staffing shortage

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Hospitals around the state may soon be forced to follow in the footsteps of Nebraska Medicine.

Last week, Nebraska Medicine went into crisis mode. Too many patients and not enough resources.

It’s a key way to protect a system that’s on course to balloon out of control. Staff is tired and stressed from a two-year pandemic or sick themselves from the fast-spreading omicron variant.

There just aren’t enough traveling nurses to fill the gaps anymore.

“We know that it’s still largely a disease of the unvaccinated. And when they get infected they get sicker and often need hospitalization,” said Ed Hannon, President of CHI Health St. Francis in Grand Island.

Every major hospital seems to rely on some traveling staff but the demand for services is so great now. Their services often go to the highest bidder.

“Travelers are both a great help but also a great scourge. They’re helpful because we all like to have them. We have some on staff who are filling some holes and they are excellent. On the other hand -- our own nursing staff is getting recruited away to become travelers on salaries we simply cannot support. When sometimes they’re being recruited to go to Omaha. It’s a challenge when they can stay in their own home and drive a few extra miles to get two to three times what we can pay here. Meanwhile, we have some travelers from Omaha here in Lincoln. It’s a war we don’t want to get in and no one wins,” said Dr. John Trapp, VP of Medical Affairs, Bryan Health in Lincoln.

Staff at Nebraska’s rural hospitals, who are already seeing big spikes in COVID cases, are concerned about the writing on the wall.

“It does seem to be a one to two-week delay on what happens on the east side -- so we’re expecting it to increase,” said Lori Mazanec CEO of Box Butte General Hospital in Alliance.

Administrators understand they usually lag the Omaha metro area by a week or two in case counts and then hospitalizations. Meaning it’s only a matter of time before health care decisions for patients get even harder in rural Nebraska.

“There’s no doubt we are still in one of the darkest days of the pandemic. Since Christmas, our positivity rates have gone from 11% to 27% -- more than doubled. We have a long haul of about four to five weeks still with COVID in our state,” said Jeremy Nordquist, President of Nebraska Hospital Association.