576 Henry Ford workers off the job due to COVID-19 illness, exposure as hospitals fill up - Detroit Free Press

Michigan health care workers are getting sick with COVID-19 or are in quarantine because of exposure, further taxing already stressed hospitals.

Henry Ford Health System reported Friday that 576 of its roughly 33,000 employees are out of work because they either have coronavirus or were in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 and are in quarantine — a rise of 200 workers in a week.

"We are very concerned with the staffing shortage," said Dr. Adnan Munkarah, executive vice president and chief clinical officer at Henry Ford Health System. .

Although case rates appear to be leveling off overall in Michigan — averaging 6,727 new daily cases over the last seven days — 81% of intensive care unit hospital beds are full, said Dr.

walks past notes thank medical workers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, photographed on June 26, 2020.

Awdish is the director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and the medical director of Care Experience for the Henry Ford Health System who wrote a best-selling memoir, In Shock, based on her battle with a critical illness. (Photo: Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press).

"What I mean by that is that on a regular basis, our hospital leaders, our chief medical officers are connecting across our hospitals to see how we can flex our capacity," he said.

"If we are short on beds at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital, our leaders are contacting our facilities in Detroit, in West Bloomfield or Wyandotte to accommodate patients.

"This has been a continuing challenge and this is why our plea to the community (is) that we need to protect our health care workers" by wearing masks, social distancing, practicing hand hygiene and avoiding large gatherings, including at Christmas. .

This week, 136 employees tested positive for the virus throughout the Henry Ford Health System, compared with 158 in the previous week, Munkarah said.

Adnan Munkarah, Henry Ford Health System's executive vice president and chief clinical officer. (Photo: Ray Manning/Henry Ford Health System)

The health system plans to distribute 260,000 of free masks as part of the campaign, Munkarah said, and is preparing to begin administering COVID-19 vaccines to its health care workers as soon as they are approved for distribution

health care workforce that is here in Michigan, as well as around the nation" vaccinated, Munkarah said.  

But knowing that supplies of any COVID-19 vaccine will be extremely limited at first, Munkarah says Henry Ford will move its highest-risk workers to the front of the line for immunizations — those with contact with patients on acute care units, intensive care units and in emergency departments

However, he said, "as a health care system, our decision at the present time is that we are not proceeding with any mandating of vaccines