FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — This week Washington Regional expanded its ICU bed capacity by opening a third unit dedicated to COVID-19 patients.
This according to hospital administrator Birch Wright.
Wright says a challenge with expanding the ICU unit is it requires to move around nurses and other staff to cover those additional beds.
Lenny Whiteman, Vice President of Managed Care at Washington Regional, shared why it’s vital the community gets a flu shot and takes precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during Thursday’s Fayetteville Board of Health meeting.
“Not only are the beds full or close to be full but also the resources being used to take care of the patients are high,” Whiteman said. “A lot of high use of nurses for those patients.”
We did reach out to other hospitals in the area, Mercy hospital says it’s not near capacity for COVID patients and at this time do not plan on scaling back the visitor policy.
