PRINCETON, W.Va. — Hospitals in southern West Virginia are not exempt from the challenges facing health care facilities amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Staff at Princeton Community Hospital are working extra shifts to ensure patients receive treatment, and the facility has also hired travel nurses. While the facility has ventilators, there remains a need to reserve more.
Delegate Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, who also serves on the Princeton Community Hospital Board of Directors, said he expects the coronavirus pandemic to worsen in West Virginia, meaning additional patients and stress on the hospital.
“You rise to the occasion and do what you have to do, but it takes its toll,” he said on Thursday’s “MetroNews Talkline.”
Mercer County Delegate and President of the medical staff and a member of the Board of Directors at Princeton Community Hospital Dr. Joe Ellington talks with Hoppy Kercheval about how they are coping with the rise in Covid numbers. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/KoM1CWflaW
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) December 31, 2020
Ellington noted staff are doing well with handling additional work related to the pandemic, but it is challenging to balance maintaining mental health and job responsibilities.
“With the way the whole situation in the state and the country has been where parents have to be home with their kids, that affects a lot of our staff, too,” he said. “They don’t have daycare or other people to take care of the children, so that limits the number of shifts that people can work.”
Vaccination efforts for staff are underway at Princeton Community Hospital; the first doses have been distributed.
Ellington said resources remain limited, but he remains in contact with state agencies about access to necessary equipment, including ventilators. Eighteen patients at Princeton Community Hospital are on ventilators as of Thursday morning.
“We’re trying to utilize what we have, and we have to have a few area hospitals try to get us a few on loan,” he said. “That is something that may get worse over the next few weeks. I know that our people at the state are trying to do their best job to get things available for us.”
Ellington said people with minor emergencies should seek treatment at places other than the hospital’s emergency room to avoid long waiting times as staff continue coronavirus treatment.