‘Our hands are tied’: US coronavirus surge ravages small rural hospitals - The Guardian

As Dr Shane Wilson makes the rounds at the tiny, 25-bed hospital in rural Missouri, many of his movements are familiar in an age of coronavirus.

In November, Wilson treated his own father, who along with his wife used to work at the same hospital.

The area is so remote that the nearest stoplight, McDonald’s and Walmart are all an hour away, the hospital public relations director, Alisa Kigar, said.

People come to the hospital from six surrounding counties, typically for treatment of things like farm and sports injuries, chest pains and the flu.

The small hospital with roughly six doctors and 75 nurses among 142 full-time staff, is in crisis.

Wilson said some moderately ill people have been sent home with oxygen and told, “If things get worse, come back in, but we don’t have a place to put you and we don’t have a place to transfer you.”.

Meanwhile, a staffing shortage is so severe that the hospital put out an appeal for anyone with healthcare experience, including retirees, to come to work.

The hospital’s chief nursing officer, Elizabeth Guffey, said nurses were working up to 24 extra hours each week.

“We spend our time indoors taking care of these very sick people, and then we go outdoors and hear people tell us the disease is a hoax or it doesn’t really exist,” Guffey said.

Brock Slabach, senior vice-president of the National Rural Health Association, based in suburban Kansas City, said it takes “space, staff and stuff” to run a rural hospital.

“If you don’t have any one of those three, you’re really hamstrung,” he said, noting that many hospitals face shortages in all three areas.

“I don’t know that getting him to Iowa City would have made a difference,” Wilson said