Salem Township Hospital Administrator Alex Nazarian is concerned about the mental impact of the on-going battle with COVID-19 on the nursing staff.
He brought up the concern when reporting to the Salem Township Hospital Board Monday afternoon at COVID-19 cases have been on the rise again since Thanksgiving.
“It doesn’t stop for 18 months. With other illnesses, let’s say for the flu, you have the spike during the winter time and then it goes away. Other things, one or two patients you diagnose some today but don’t have it tomorrow, but with Covid it happens everyday. And it takes its toll on our staff members as we try to keep their spirits up.”
Nazarian says as of Friday there were three COVID-19 positive patients in the hospital. During the month of November, the hospital completed 1,509 COVID tests with 207 or nearly 14-percent coming back positive.
Nazarian emphasized the hospital’s infection protocol is very strong and no infections have been traced back to the hospital. Nazarian says it is much easier to transfer patients to regional hospitals for advanced COVID treatment than it was in early fall, but there are times when there is no bed availability.
The hospital had another good month financially, with a $1.19-milion positive bottom line. Both outpatient visits and the number of inpatients were above budget in November.
