‘They are getting tired’: Local hospital reports struggles as COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations continue to climb

NEENAH, Wis. (WFRV) – Hospitals have been struggling each week as cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations related to the virus have continued to climb.

ThedaCare in Neenah has been particularly hit hard as officials tell WFRV Local 5 that they are at 95% capacity for their beds – something they’ve been dealing with for the last few months.

Chief Financial Officer for ThedaCare, Mark Thompson, says that many other hospitals are dealing with the same struggle.

Thompson tells WFRV Local 5 that one of the biggest problems they are facing is exhaustion.

“They’ve been doing this for 10 weeks. They have been taking extra shifts, they have been working extra days, they have been going way out of their way and they are getting tired.”

He says that, out of the 170 staff currently out, a third of them are nurses.

ThedaCare knows they aren’t alone – they keep getting calls from other facilities.

“We’re in constant contact with Green Bay, Milwaukee, Madison, and up in Wausau,” Thompson says. “Because the whole state is on fire, for lack of a better term.”

The staff across ThedaCare is trying to take care of patients, but Thompson says they have to deny transfers some days based on the resources available.

“They’re trying to transfer over to us and, unfortunately, at this point in time, we had to say we cannot accept until we get some discharges. So this is not just ThedaCare, this is a phenomenon across the entire region.”