Greene County General Hospital has requested assistance from the Indiana National Guard to help support the hospital and clinics’ staffing needs during a large spike in positive COVID 19 case numbers. GCGH is experiencing an increase in hospitalizations in both COVID and non-COVID patients.
The Indiana National Guard has agreed to deploy a six-person team consisting of two clinical and four non-clinical members for two weeks to support the staff at GCGH and My Clinics. We anticipate the team arriving this week.
According to GCGH’s Chief Medical Officer, Michael Gamble, MD, “GCGH, like most other hospitals in the country, is facing obstacles with high volumes of patients and trouble with staffing shortages. These shortages are not from employees being fired or quitting due to vaccine mandates. These shortages are a result of tired and sick healthcare workers who are struggling to continue helping others. The shortage or workers, supplies, medications, and blood products will affect everyone’s healthcare in the coming days. Please do your part to avoid Covid-19 and stay safe and healthy.”
GCGH recommends the COVID-19 vaccine as a safe and effective action against severe COVID 19 infections. At GCGH, most patients sick enough to be admitted to hospitals for COVID 19 are unvaccinated. Additional protection measures include good masking when indoors and around other people, good hand hygiene with hand washing/sanitization, and staying home when you are sick. Avoiding crowds and staying apart from others with good distancing also helps.
