Opelousas General Hospital Coping with COVID-19

Challenges with Covid-19

Hospitals in our area continue to navigate the challenges of covid-19... news 1's leigha mcneil spoke to the president and c-e-o of opelousas general - who says its facing a staffing shortage, much like the rest of the hospitals in our area... its a battle every day..fighting against an enemy they cant see...nats kenneth cochran - president and ceo of opelousas general says about 50% of his staff has returned to work after quarantining or testing positive for covid-19 this week ...but"well w're still short w're still short."

Causing them to pull from other areas in the hospital..

"we did what i call pull to the core.

My first priority is always preservation of life and right now tha's sort of the critical care covid and outpatient scenario."

The shifting of hospital staff has reduced the frequency of other medical procedures"we probably are doing 10 to 15% less surgeries then normal because we had to pull nurses to other carriers."

Just as they are constantly making changing cochran says the virus adapting too"this thing is more contagious but 'm told ther's a mutated version of the virus tha's more virulent which meat is stronger which also means people show symptoms faster.

The volume of covet patients is much higher but not as many of them are dying which is really nice and then they do't typically stay in the hospital for as long."

I's the end of another month for front line workers battling covid-19...cochran believes the fight will undoubtedly be extended if everyday people dont do their part to stop the spread.."this is't a conspiracy theory if we want to have some type of normality any time before the end of the calendar year w've just got to really wear masks."leigha mcneil news 15 thanks leigha... as staff return into the hospital they are following enhanced procedures to eliminate the spread with in the hospital amongst patients and physicians... 3