Overwhelmed by COVID patients, Alaska’s health care workers also face harassment

Authored by pbs.org and submitted by ladyem8
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Alaska is experiencing the nation's worst outbreak right now. The surge there is made worse because of the state's huge size, and that its limited health care system largely relies on major hospitals in Anchorage, which is the state's largest city.

So far, 20 hospitals and health facilities in the state have triggered so-called crisis standards of care, because they're so short on beds and staff. Alaska has flown in nearly 500 medical workers to assist over the next few months. Just 58 percent of the population there is fully vaccinated.

Jeannie Monk is the senior vice president of Alaska's State Hospital and Nursing Home Association. And she joins me from Juneau.

Jeannie Monk, thank you so much for being here.

I wonder if you could give just us a quick snapshot of how things are going there right now.

Jeannie Monk, Senior Vice President, Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association: Right. Thanks. Glad to have a chance to chat today.

Well, while things seem to be improving in the rest of the country, Alaska is facing our worst surge of the pandemic. And we're really struggling as a health system.

Starting in August, we saw case counts and hospitalizations really increasing. And clinical care is extremely limited. And we're really having to make difficult decisions on how to allocate scarce resources and provide care to a very large state.

Sirvink on October 8th, 2021 at 13:55 UTC »

When I go to a restaurant, I like to harass the serving staff before I order food.

graps on October 8th, 2021 at 13:51 UTC »

Been a brain drain going on in red states for decades. COVID will greatly accelerate it

shillyshally on October 8th, 2021 at 12:23 UTC »

A doctor there was interviewed on NPR recently and he was furious they are being forced to triage, that a man died who needed an operation, heart I think, but they decided that an unvaxxed covid patient stood a better chance of survival so he/she was given the bed. The other man died.