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Missouri to provide fill-in medical staff at hospitals

A 12-week partnership was announced between Missouri hospitals and Vizient, a health care performance improvement company. The partnership will assist hospitals under stress and strain from COVID-19 by providing additional staffing.

More help is on the way to Missouri hospitals. Overall, Missouri does not have a hospital bed shortage, it has a medical staffing shortage. The state is cutting a deal, bringing in about 760 more hospital staffers for the next 12 weeks.

“Registered nurses, respiratory therapists, certified nurse assistants. When fully deployed, this will add nearly 600 total beds to our statewide bed capacity,” Gov. Mike Parson said.

That partnership will be with a company called Vizient, which is a Dallas firm that, among other things, provides fill-in medical staffers.

According to the Missouri Hospital Association, 25% of Missouri’s 15,000 general hospital beds are available. That’s not counting intensive care unit beds. The problem is that so many medical staffers are getting sick with COVID-19, it’s now tough to find enough people to operate the available beds.

Parson said he does not know how much this is going to cost, but he said he is confident that the federal coronavirus relief bill money will cover it.

“Since the start of COVID-19, we have continually monitored Missouri’s statewide health care system and focused on supporting our hospitals and health care workers as much as possible,” Parson said. “Staffing continues to be one of the biggest challenges right now, and we are currently doing everything we can at the state level to assist.”