With the third worst shortage of hospital personnel in any state in the country, South Carolina health leaders are finding that they must turn to creative solutions and rely on outside help during COVID-19.
While the state manages a long winter with thousands of new coronavirus cases each week and tries to implement the most aggressive vaccination campaign in its history, people are proving to be one of the most difficult resources to maintain.
Thirty-six percent of South Carolina hospitals are experiencing staff shortages, according to the latest White House weekly report. This compares to 16% at the national level and puts the state behind only New Mexico and California.
This has prompted state hospitals, and even the state’s public health agency, to call on volunteers, especially those with health experience. Some are also hiring temporary staff, as organizations administer vaccines and COVID-19 in addition to their usual businesses.
It is not just hospitals that are feeling the pinch. Liberty Doctors, based in Charleston, is one of the only independent primary care clinics to receive the Pfizer vaccine, which should be stored in ultra-low temperatures. Its leaders considered it important to be able to offer the inoculation directly to their patients.
Dr Hugh Durrence, a family doctor at Liberty Doctors, said the clinic’s vaccination effort is run by volunteers. And although doctors’ offices don’t get paid much to vaccinate, Liberty Doctors also hired help.
“We have modified our practice to accommodate the pandemic,” said Durrence.
Pharmacist Shiva Green (left) and Anna Kroninger, a MUSC pharmacy student, fill syringes with doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine while volunteering for the Liberty Doctors on James Island on Thursday, February 11, 2021. Lauren Petracca / Staff
Mary Catherine Gill, a nursing student at MUSC, gives Joy Howard of James Island his first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the Liberty Doctors on James Island on Thursday, February 11, 2021. Lauren Petracca / Staff
Help on the way
While the scarcity is severe, South Carolina has people to fill the gaps, including a force of volunteers eager to help and a reserve force of soldiers that has been sent to every corner of the state.
The National Guard of SC has about 50 doctors available. In total, about 480 soldiers are on duty to support the guard’s COVID-19 missions.
Major General Van McCarty, the state’s assistant general, said the guard’s focus was on supporting test sites for most of last year. But with cases of COVID-19 persistently high during the winter and the statewide vaccination effort increasing, needs have changed.
“When we started to see a significant number of our hospital uses across the state growing, and hospitals also experiencing staff shortages, we started to provide our medical support to help hospitals,” said McCarty.
The National Guard is focusing on being a “force multiplier,” said McCarty, strategically supporting as many operations as possible. But guarding is also naturally limited in capacity.
Any exposure to the coronavirus, at home or at work, is understaffed due to the need for quarantine, McCarty added.
The arrival of the vaccine and the fact that health professionals are first in line are starting to alleviate this problem.
Dr. Danielle Scheurer, director of quality at the Medical University of South Carolina, said that about 80 percent of the MUSC health team that interacts with patients was vaccinated in the first week of February.
“We like to think that achieving that value at least makes the workplace safer,” said Scheurer.
The number of new infections among people who care for patients at MUSC has dropped dramatically in recent weeks as a result, said Scheurer, a great relief and success for the hospital system.
Even so, MUSC had to request $ 5 million in aid from state lawmakers to help it retain and hire employees as it faces a shortage of 1,500 nurses.
A persistent problem
While convincing nurses and other health professionals to stay in South Carolina is a problem exacerbated by COVID-19, the state was already having trouble maintaining them.
Jeannette Andrews, dean of the school of nursing at the University of South Carolina, is concerned that even with educational institutions like hers, the stress of being on the front lines of a pandemic is encouraging employees to leave their professions early.
“We have to not only continue to produce the supply for scarcity, we have to be aware of the potential friction that can occur,” she said.
And so the struggle to combat the state’s labor shortage only became more complicated during COVID-19. In the pre-pandemic, South Carolina already had one of the most serious nursing needs in the country. Payment seems to be part of the problem.
Regardless of the cost of living, the average hourly wage for registered nurses in South Carolina is $ 5 below the national average, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Wages here are also more stagnant, growing only 8% between 2010 and 2019, compared to 14% in the country.
The payment issue is complex, said Andrews. Educators are not paid enough to make it worthwhile to leave the head of the bed for a role as a teacher. And the travel contracts that are taking many people out of the state offer much higher wages than most organizations can afford.
At the request of Prisma Health, the state’s largest hospital system, dozens of USC students volunteer every day, Andrews said.
Karly Taylor, a third-year nursing student, is one of them. Taylor recently volunteered at a mass vaccination event at Prisma Health, where organizers needed a lot of logistical help to move everyone through the queues.
“They need manpower to make this work smoothly,” said Taylor. “There are hundreds of people at these vaccination sites at all hours of the day. Everyone is doing everything possible to ensure that people are vaccinated.”