MORGANNTOWN, W.Va. — WVU Medicine facilities are the latest to benefit from assistance from the West Virginia National Guard. Troops are being deployed to WVU Medicine outlets all across the state. There are 25 guardsmen and women at the home base at Morgantown’s Ruby Memorial Hospital.
“We’re excited to have them. It’s a big pick me up and we’re very appreciative of the help,” said Albert Wright, CEO of WVU Medicine in an appearance on MetroNews Talkline.
Like most West Virginia hospitals, Ruby and all of the WVU Medicine hospitals are short staffed, mostly due to Covid, but also because it’s hard to find and keep health care employees.
The National Guard will start helping at hospitals statewide beginning today. Albert Wright, President and CEO of the WVU Health System, talks about the impact this will have for hospitals. Albert joins @DaveWilsonMN. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/MkNo6HkX7P
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) January 25, 2022
“We already have staffing shortages that the entire country is facing and every day we have a rotating group of people exposed to Covid or get Covid or they’re unexpectedly out so for a lot of these administrative tasks the Guard is going to be helping us,” he explained.
Guard members deployed to a WVU Medicine facility will be handling a range of tasks. Wright indicated those activities will include moving patients around the hospital, Covid testing work, greeting and patient registration.
The National Guard deployed the first troops to the Charleston Area Medical Center last week to assist where needed. More than two dozen hospitals have requested their assistance. Guard officials indicated as many as 350 troops are being trained for the assignment. The training has been ongoing for several weeks at Camp Dawson in Kingwood.
Wright said the arrival of troops is a big morale boost to their employees who are stretched to the limit.
“After being in a two year battle with Covid, seeing these guard members arrive and working in uniform, I think that’s a real pick me up for our staff,” Wright said.