HOUSTON — As coronavirus cases continue to climb, the strain it puts on healthcare workers in hospitals continues to grow. Dr. David Persse, with the Houston Health Department, said help from out of state has arrived to help across the region.
He said about 120 travel nurses have arrived in the Greater Houston area and have been deployed to hospitals across a 25-county region. He said some of these healthcare workers are coming from areas once hit hard by coronavirus, like New York.
Also, he said hospitals have different ways of asking for more nurses.
“We will often get the request for supplies and personnel. So we’ve had some requests for personnel but we’ve not had a huge request,” Persse said.
For the healthcare workers coming in to help, Persse hopes they achieve two things.
“I hope that they will help us expand the capacity and how many patients we can take care of at any one time,” he said.
In addition, he hopes they provide some sort of relief for those on the frontlines who have been working nonstop since the pandemic started.
“Because some of them have been working really long hours for months now and they’re not only physically, but also emotionally, exhausted. And, we need to take care of them as well because this is a marathon. This is not a sprint. This is going to be ... we’re going to be dealing with this for months on end,” Persse said.