Rural Wisconsin hospitals 'burning on the inside' with COVID-19 surge
DAVID WAHLBERG
Updated
Nurse Kristina Beidel and other staff at Aspirus Medford Hospital prepare to rotate a ventilated COVID-19 patient. Rural hospitals are especially feeling the strain of the latest coronavirus surge, administrators say.
Ten nurses and other staff at Aspirus Medford Hospital prepare to rotate a ventilated, unvaccinated COVID-19 patient. The hospital didn't treat ventilated patients until September, when it became hard to transfer them elsewhere because of the delta variant surge.
Aspirus Medford Hospital emergency room nurse Kari Rickert, right, tries to find phone numbers for family members of a patient, with medical receptionist Jennifer Walters. In a light-hearted sign of teamwork, each ER staffer has a rubber ducky, lined up atop two computer screens.
Aspirus Medford Hospital, built in the early 1960s, has been expanded and remodeled through the years. Like other critical access hospitals, it has 25 beds.
"Everybody's exhausted, I think, because it's been going on for so long," said Jessica Faude, a nurse and interim vice president of patient care services at Aspirus Medford Hospital.
Nurse Kristina Beidel and other staff at Aspirus Medford Hospital prepare to rotate a ventilated COVID-19 patient. Rural hospitals are especially feeling the strain of the latest coronavirus surge, administrators say.
Aspirus Medford Hospital emergency room nurse Kari Rickert, right, tries to find phone numbers for family members of a patient, with medical receptionist Jennifer Walters. In a light-hearted sign of teamwork, each ER staffer has a rubber ducky, lined up atop two computer screens.
Ten nurses and other staff at Aspirus Medford Hospital prepare to rotate a ventilated, unvaccinated COVID-19 patient. The hospital didn't treat ventilated patients until September, when it became hard to transfer them elsewhere because of the delta variant surge.
Aspirus Medford Hospital, built in the early 1960s, has been expanded and remodeled through the years. Like other critical access hospitals, it has 25 beds.
"Everybody's exhausted, I think, because it's been going on for so long," said Jessica Faude, a nurse and interim vice president of patient care services at Aspirus Medford Hospital.
