Name: State of Arizona hiring nearly 600 out-of-state nurses to assist with COVID-19 care
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State of Arizona hiring nearly 600 out-of-state nurses to assist with COVID-19 care

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Arizona RepublicView CommentsThe state of Arizona is working with a Texas-based company to bring nearly 600 out-of-state nurses to help stressed hospitals during the COVID-19 crisis.Vizient Inc. is working with the Arizona Department of Health Services to bring critical care and medical-surgical nurses to the Arizona, state health officials said Wednesday.To be eligible, hospitals must be operating in accordance with all of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's executive orders&nbsp;and must have&nbsp;"exhausted other existing avenues of increasing staffing,"&nbsp;state officials said in a news release.More than 30 hospitals across Arizona already have applied to the state for help with staffing, department spokeswoman Holly Poynter said&nbsp;Wednesday morning.Vizient describes itself as a company that&nbsp;"provides solutions and services that improve the delivery of high-value care by aligning cost, quality and market performance for more than 50% of the nation’s acute care providers."Arizona has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 infections in the country, and its hospital system is feeling the strain of caring for the sickest of those getting&nbsp;the disease.Inpatient hospitalizations, ICU beds in use,&nbsp;ventilators in use and emergency department visits by suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients all hovered near their highest recorded levels on Wednesday.Identified cases rose to 131,354 and known deaths total 2,434,&nbsp;according to the&nbsp;daily report by the Arizona Department of Health Services.Wednesday's data shows 87% of current inpatient beds and 90% of ICU beds were in use, which includes people being treated for&nbsp;COVID-19 and other patients. Overall, 52%&nbsp;of ventilators were in use.As first announced by Dr. Cara Christ,&nbsp;state health department director, July 9, hospitals in need of critical staffing support now may receive nurses from the state at no cost for up to six weeks.State officials on Wednesday announced that hospitals will be prioritized for staffing placement based on patients’ referrals through the Arizona Surge Line, which is a 24/7 statewide phone line for hospitals and other providers to call when they have a COVID-19 patient who needs a level of care they can't provide.An electronic system locates available beds and appropriate care, attempting to evenly distribute&nbsp;the patients so that no one system or hospital is overwhelmed.The nurses supplied by this program&nbsp;are in addition to those brought in by health systems and hospitals on their own. They also are different from the nearly 100 medical staff provided by federal disaster medical assistance teams that are helping at some Arizona hospitals, including Tucson Medical Center and Yuma Regional Medical Center.Details on the 500 medical providers that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said he'd make available to Arizona were&nbsp;not immediately available. Pence announced those health care workers&nbsp;.Several hospitals have reported staffing problems as a result of an influx of patients suffering from COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.Many ICU nurses in Arizona are working four 12-hour shifts per week instead of three.Since the incubation period for developing COVID-19 is two to 14 days, staff members who have been exposed to the virus must stay out of work for prolonged periods of time, and some hospital staff members are becoming ill with COVID-19, too.“We’ve prioritized&nbsp;providing these staffing resources to fill critical resource gaps in hospitals and ensure they can continue to provide excellent care across the state," Christ said in the news release.Arizona as of Wednesday had the third-highest rate of COVID-19 infection in the country, according to the CDC's which ranks infection rates by state but counts New York City and New York separately.The rankings as of Wednesday were: New York City at 2,236,8 cases per 100,000 people, followed by New Jersey at 1,974.7 cases per 100,000 people and Arizona at 1,786.2 cases per 100,000 people.The U.S. average rate is 1,042.3 cases per 100,000 people, the CDC says.State health officials say Arizonans can support hospitals and health care workers by continuing to practice COVID-19 prevention measures, including physically distancing by staying at least six feet away from others and wearing a cloth face covering in public.Other advice from the state health department:Arizona Republic reporter Alison Steinbach contributed to this reportReach health care reporter Stephanie Innes at or at 602-444-8369. Follow her on Twitter Support local journalism. View Comments

Arizona RepublicView CommentsThe state of Arizona is working with a Texas-based company to bring nearly 600 out-of-state nurses to help stressed hospitals during the COVID-19 crisis.Vizient Inc. is working with the Arizona Department of Health Services to bring critical care and medical-surgical nurses to the Arizona, state health officials said Wednesday.To be eligible, hospitals must be operating in accordance with all of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's executive orders&nbsp;and must have&nbsp;"exhausted other existing avenues of increasing staffing,"&nbsp;state officials said in a news...

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Stephanie Innes

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State of Arizona hiring nearly 600 out-of-state nurses to assist with COVID-19 care

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