Friday, December 24, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) asked the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA) to poll all hospitals in the state about their essential staffing needs given the dire staffing constraints that everyone has been experiencing. The state was looking into a staffing company that could potentially be of help. To quickly take advantage of this opportunity, hospitals were asked to provide that information by the following Tuesday.
This assessment highlighted the need for more than 1,000 people including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, respiratory therapist, laboratory and imaging staff, environmental services staff, physicians, advanced practice providers, and more. As a result, the state pursued an agreement with the staffing agency and then worked with MHA to figure out some of the specifics. The staffing company had a relatively small portion of capacity given the needs that were presented (the article states 100 nurses to start). The state determined that inpatient hospital needs would be the focus.
While we responded with what we need here at Winona Health, I did not anticipate that we would get this assistance given the needs of the health systems in the metro area. However, the state required that the distribution of these resources go through regional coalitions. Our region was allocated 23 people (RNs and RTs only). They looked at census (covid and non-covid), number of patients on vents, number of ICU and MSP patients and then looked at the respective requests. In the end, through the coalition’s process, we were allocated one Intensive Care Unit RN, two Medical/Surgical RNs and one RT. The state approved this allocation. Given that we didn’t expect to receive this assistance, this was a good outcome.
The state has the contract with the staffing agency and will pay a portion of the cost with hospitals also paying a portion. Additionally, these staff will only be with a healthcare organization for 60 days. We also needed to agree to accept discharges from other healthcare organizations if we have capacity (which we have already been doing when possible). Our first nurse from this process started January 19.
This was a very fast process from data collection to resource allocation. In fact, we had only two days to work it through the coalition process. We did request assistance for some other staffing needs but, given that the focus was limited, those requests were not part of the process.
As the second anniversary of the COVID pandemic approaches, there is no question it has taken a toll on everyone. Everyone matters, and everyone at Winona Health has been beyond amazing through it all. Thank you!
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