As more hospital staff are exposed to COVID-19, Bozeman Deaconess faces staffing shortages and challenges to provide patient care. The hospital implemented new guidelines this week to bring certain staff out of quarantine early.
Bozeman Deaconess Hospital has initiated what it calls contingency staffing in several parts of the hospital. This means certain hospital staff who have been exposed to COVID-19 but are not showing symptoms are asked to return to work after one week of quarantine rather than the standard two weeks.
Kallie Kujawak has been leading Bozeman Deaconess’s COVID-19 efforts since February. She says ideally, staff leaving quarantine early would get a negative test result back before returning to work, but as the turnaround time for test results gets longer with the surge in cases, she says that may not be possible.
“If we have two spine surgeons in the community, we can’t wait for results to come back for them to come in and take care of a trauma,” Kujawak says.
She says the shortened quarantine time for hospital staff is in line with updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and that Bozeman Deaconess has been in consultation with the Gallatin City-County Health Department.
Kajawak says an infection prevention expert works with the returning staff to minimize risks and find alternative work if possible. For example, they may be assigned to work with patients who already have COVID-19.
She says the hospital also checks and documents the worker’s symptoms every four hours. The returning staff are also required to eat alone and follow additional cleaning guidelines.
Kujawak couldn’t give an exact number for how many hospital staff are currently in quarantine.
“But I can say that we have enough that it’s causing a major constraint on our system, and the majority of those are community acquired. So we are finding that it’s not happening in the walls of our building. It’s happening outside.”
Kujawak asked the public to follow public health orders and guidelines, like wearing a mask around people outside your household and staying home when sick.
