(Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
PHOENIX – Aid is on the way for Arizona hospitals that are working under the burden of increasing coronavirus patients.
The Arizona Department of Health Services announced a partnership with Vizient, Inc. on Wednesday to bring nearly 600 nurses from other states to work in hospitals as they expand capacity under emergency plans.
Vizient is a Texas-based company that helps healthcare organizations in the United States improve their performance.
The state said it will provide hospitals in compliance with all executive orders from Governor Doug Ducey at no charge for additional staff for up to six weeks.
“Our front-line healthcare workers and hospital staff have worked tirelessly to care for Arizonans and we are very grateful for their efforts,” said Health Director Dr. Cara Christ in a press release.
“We have prioritized providing these staff resources to fill critical resource gaps in hospitals and ensuring that they can continue to provide excellent care across the state.”
Incoming critical care and medical-surgical nurses will be deployed through the Arizona Wave Line, which was established during the pandemic to help divert patients from hospitals without space to places with space.
Federal partners have sent nearly 100 staff members of the National Disaster Medical System to Arizona for two-week deployments in the past month, according to the statement.
On June 25, Banner Health, the state’s largest hospital network, said it hired more than 200 additional nurses to help cope with the increase in COVID-19 patients.
The number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients in Arizona hospitals reached a record level on Monday, but decreased by 24 overnight to 3,493 on Tuesday, according to the state health department.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in ICU beds also decreased overnight from a record high, dropping from 970 on Monday to 929 on Tuesday.
According to Tuesday’s hospital data, 51.2% of all Arizona hospitalized patients and 61% of the state’s ICU patients are confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19.
Overall, the latest data showed that Arizona hospitalized beds were 87% full and ICU beds 90% full, both below the highest levels observed during the pandemic.
The state reported a record 97 new coronavirus deaths and 3,257 more cases on Wednesday, with a total of 131,354 cases and 2,434 deaths.
The state reported 117 deaths on July 7, but that total included 52 confirmed through a death certificate. There was no indication that Wednesday’s report had any death certificate matches.
The previous one-day high death report that did not include the matching death certificate was 88 on July 1.
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