U.S. Army National Guard Lt. Matt Dimick and Teresa Nash, nutritional service associate, work together to put together a patient meal at Salem Hospital on Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
After three months of serving patients at an overcrowded Salem Hospital, members of the Oregon National Guard are headed home.
Between Sept. 7 and Dec. 10, 175 National Guard filled a number of non-clinical roles at the hospital and provided more than 51,000 hours of support, Salem Health spokeswoman Lisa Wood wrote in an email.
In doing so, she said they helped hospital staff care for more than 850 Covid patients and discharge more than 7,700 patients.
Salem Hospital exceeded 100% capacity nearly every day the National Guard was in service there, Wood said, and “their service and presence helped make it possible to effectively care for this increased volume of patients.”
Guard members were paid using Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, Oregon National Guard spokesman Maj. Stephen Bomar said.
Regarding how they intend to fill the gap in services that the National Guard was providing, Wood said they will continue to flex their staffing and hire to meet the needs of patients and the community.
“The National Guard was deployed at the governor’s request to temporarily fill non-clinical staffing needs in hospitals during the Covid patient surge,” she said. “At Salem Health, while Covid inpatient numbers remain relatively high, averaging about 45 Covid inpatients per day, this has recently decreased since the peak in September of 112 Covid inpatients. Since August, as the surge was growing, Salem Health has been actively recruiting staff to close gaps in supporting the surge of patients versus our non-surge staffing levels.”
Wood said this was the second time the Oregon National Guard has joined Salem Health this year, the first being for the state’s first mass vaccination clinic.
“This is an historic event to have worked with the National Guard during the pandemic in both capacities – the mass vaccination clinic and within the hospital – as the National Guard has not been called into service at Salem Health at any time prior during our 125-year history,” she said.
Wood said that in an “appreciation ceremony” on Dec. 7, Salem Health President and CEO Cheryl Wolfe presented the Oregon National Guard with its Hero Award, which Wood called Salem Health’s “highest star award.”
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
