Texas is in another COVID-19 surge. But the state isn't sending nurses to help - San Antonio Express-News

The state has ignored San Antonio’s request for 550 nurses to help fill a shortage caused by a flood of COVID-19 patients, telling the city it will have to use its own federal stimulus money to pay for the reinforcements.

The state previously had hired staffing companies to send travel nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists to help hospitals keep up with surges of COVID-19 patients.

That’s a reversal from the earlier approach, when the state spent about $5.39 billion — which was reimbursed by the federal government — to hire staffing companies to send thousands of medical providers to help hospitals keep up with surges of COVID-19 patients, according to state data.

The move has left health care leaders, hospital administrators and government officials across Texas scrambling to find a way to quickly hire more medical staff at a time when hospitals are struggling to retain employees and keep up with patient volumes.

At the height of the pandemic, about 1,600 nurses and respiratory therapists were sent through state contracts to help San Antonio-area hospitals.

The state’s move not to pony up additional health care workers baffled Wolff, who couldn’t see a reason why the state should operate differently than it did during previous surges.

The state health department said San Antonio and Bexar County have received more than $700 million in federal recovery dollars, which can be used to pay for medical staff need to care for a surge of COVID-19 patients.

He said the state was also hoping to solve a problem that arose when the state provided contracted medical staff: Some nurses quit their jobs at Texas hospitals to join staffing companies that offered higher pay.

But the move has caused anxiety among health providers across the state, particularly those in rural communities that had trouble attracting nurses and doctors to their hospitals even before the pandemic.

In a letter sent this week, John Henderson, the CEO of the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals, urged Gov.

Greg Abbott to “immediately take steps to provide additional medical staffing” to the state’s rural hospitals.

Before the pandemic, many rural hospitals in Texas were already experiencing financial crises, a situation driven by declining reimbursements from government insurers; rising operating costs; shrinking populations in rural communities; and a growing number of medical bills that patients can’t afford to pay.