Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger is calling for former or retired health care workers to return to the work force as a way to alleviate strain on local health care facilities and prepare for an anticipated post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 influx.
Coppinger said the goal is to supplement on a local level what Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, the Tennessee Hospital Association and other industry groups are doing to boost the health care work force amid nationwide staffing shortages and coronavirus surges.
“We’ve seen a pattern historically where you have a holiday like we just had, and then anywhere from five to 14 days later, here comes more and more people positive. And unfortunately, of that group, a certain percentage of them end up in the hospital,” Coppinger said.
Hospitals across Tennessee already had little or no bed availability and were having to divert patients to other locations – which were also filling up fast – heading into the holiday weekend, according to Dr. Wendy Long, president and CEO of the Tennessee Hospital Association, who spoke during a news briefing last week.
Although Chattanooga has not reached that point, Coppinger said local hospitals and long-term-care facilities could use extra nurses, medical assistants and respiratory therapists to fill basic clinical and administrative roles so that regular staff in those jobs could get needed relief or work in the COVID-19 units, he said.