Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center sees COVID-19 spike, visitation restricted

Due to rising COVID-19 cases in Otero County, Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center has dealt with the complexities of treating patients infected with the virus.

The rise in COVID-19 cases in Otero County led Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center leadership to restrict hospital visitation, end in-patient elective surgeries and close the cafeteria and bistro.

The situation is assessed on a week-by-week basis, Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center CEO Jim Heckert said.

Restrictions enacted in response to rising numbers of cases over the last two months are similar to those enacted in March 2020 when COVID-19 was first detected in New Mexico. 

"A(n) overarching factor is the low rate of vaccination in the County," Heckert said. 

As of Oct. 14, 50.3% of Otero County residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the New Mexico Department of Health.

Before August 2021, Gerald champion Regional Medical Center checked in an average five to eight positive COVID-19 cases per day. That average doubled since the beginning of October, Heckert said.

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"These are patients that require a longer length of stay and so that fill up your beds quicker and that's what's putting pressure on us to try to meet that need," Heckert said. 

The Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center Emergency Room can sometimes receive 100 patients a day. As of Oct. 14, the Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center census showed the hospital had 65 staffed beds and 70 patients.

More:Telemedicine helps Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center reach patients during pandemic

To handle the extra patients, other areas of Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center, such as the Outpatient Care Unit, are used to station patients until a regular bed becomes available.

"We're having to go to all kinds of different tricks, so to speak, to be able to manage this workload," Heckert said.

As of Oct. 14, Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center had 19 positive COVID-19 patients which is more COVID-19 patients than the hospital has ever had, Heckert said.

COVID-19 cases and vaccination

Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center received mostly unvaccinated COVID-19 patients, Heckert said, though some cases of the virus were among the vaccinated, Heckert said. 

"If you took a measure of the majority of patients being admitted (for COVID-19) were unvaccinated and were younger," Heckert said.

More:Alamogordo's Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center encourages COVID-19 vaccinations

Now cases of the virus are reported in people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, Gerald champion Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Lillie Lewis said.

"We see some (COVID-19) positive children of all ages but we haven't had to admit those (child patients) into the hospital," Lewis said.

"I still think it's real and we're big believers in vaccination and we know, just simply factually, that more of our (COVID-19) patients are not vaccinated," Heckert said. 

Nurse staffing shortages 

As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center experienced staffing shortages, primarily in bedside nursing.

"We've gotten back into the COVID-19 business this summer, late summer," Heckert said. "We're actually having more patients than we've ever had before... It's putting stresses on us and it's not just us, it's the entire region."

The main stressor is the nurse shortage Heckert said. 

Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center had a 10% bedside nurse turnover rate prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current turnover rate is 40%, Heckert said.

Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center has 160 bedside nurse positions.

More:Report shows masks in children may prevent pediatric COVID-19

To help fill the gap, Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center hired 32 temporary traveling nurses, Heckert said.

However, these are not permanent employees and are only at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center until full-time nurses can be hired, Heckert said. 

"We'd hire all of them if we could to meet our vacancy rate... it's just because of the demand," Heckert said. "We thought we'd have less of that when COVID-19 first started. It seems to be a new and continuing problem for staffing."

Part of the problem is burn out among medical personnel, including the traveling nurses, Heckert said.

The traveling nurses are either "tired of traveling or tired of dealing with COVID-19. So, they're either taking a break or wanting to do something else besides bedside nursing," Heckert said.

Heckert added that Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center struggles to transfer patients to Las Cruces or El Paso where hospitals are also struggling to provide services. 

"Not necessarily full of COVID-19 (patients), just being busy," Heckert said. 

COVID-19 by the numbers in Otero County

In March 2020, and into that summer, COVID-19 cases in Otero County went from minimal to moderate. 

According to the New Mexico Department of Health, Otero County went from nine positive COVID-19 cases on May 12, 2020 to 238 positive COVID-19 cases on September 12, 2020.

Whereas, Otero County had 3,900 positive COVID-19 cases on May 12, 2021 and 5,055 positive COVID-19 cases as of September 12, 2021, according to the New Mexico Department of Health.

For that four month period in 2020, Otero County added 229 positive COVID-19 cases versus 1,155 positive cases for the same four-month period in 2021.

As of Oct. 14, Otero County has had 6,120 positive COVID-19 cases, 97 deaths attributed to COVID-19 and 5,075 reported COVID-19 recoveries, according to the New Mexico Department of Health.

Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center scheduled community COVID-19 vaccination and booster clinics Oct. 18, Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 at the Scenic View Surgery Center, 2669 Scenic Drive.

Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center will offer the Pfizer COVID-19 third dose to people eligible to receive the booster. Appointments can be scheduled at vaccinenm.org or by calling 1-855-600-3453 and press 1. Seniors and those with disabilities can call 1-800-432-2080.

Nicole Maxwell can be contacted by email at nmaxwell@alamogordonews.com, by phone at 575-415-6605 or on Twitter at @nicmaxreporter.