KOSCIUSKO, Miss.–At least 61 hospitals across the state that have asked for help will be getting it, at least to some degree, with about 1,000 contract workers being brought in. They are expected to increase hospital capacity, which has been strained because of the lack of health care workers.
“We’ve been working day and night to get reinforcements here,” said Gov. Tate Reeves, in a Tuesday news conference. “We know that we have significant additional capacity in our hospitals through hospital beds, but we don’t have significant ability to add patients because of the lack of staffing.”
Adding that staffing will cost about $10 million per week.
Adding staff will mean increasing bed capacity.
“That means about 994 hospital beds,” said Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Stephen McCraney. “That’s 757 med-surge and 237 on the ICU side.”
