Jasinski: Getting ready for the coronavirus ‘surge’

By: Senator John Jasinski

We know the coronavirus “surge” is coming, where hospitals could become inundated by patients. What’s a little less clear is precisely what resources hospitals need in order to manage that surge. How many intensive care beds? How many ventilators? How many critical supplies, like N95 respirator masks?

This was the subject of the first meeting of the Senate’s new Coronavirus working group. We put this committee together with the sole purpose of evaluating the state’s response to the pandemic, providing oversight and accountability, and making sure we are taking the necessary steps to minimize deaths.

The most frustrating thing we learned was that the emergency pool of funding we passed earlier has not even been sent to hospitals yet! The Commissioner of Health said they are examining requests and hope to allocate that money soon, but the governor’s administration has to move much, much faster.

The Senate is ready and eager to help our medical professionals and give everyone on the front lines of this crisis the tools they need to protect the public’s health, but the emergency resources we passed don’t do any good unless the governor’s administration makes them available to the people who need them. I hope they act very, very soon.

During the first meeting we heard from Mary Krinkie, a representative on behalf of Minnesota’s hospital association. Ms. Krinkie said hospitals right now are primarily focused on the “Three S’s”: space, supplies, and staff.

Space: One of the biggest tasks is in terms of preparing for a wave of new coronavirus patients is determining where to put them – particularly when there are patients with other illnesses who also require beds. Hospitals are working on this very problem right now and expect to have data available to us very soon.

Supplies: The number one job of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is to keep health care workers safe. Stockpiles are low, but they have an order placed with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get more PPE. Ms. Krinkie also said they are using a burn rate calculator to help figure out what they need.

Staff: Without staff in place, neither supplies nor space will matter. The number one goal is keeping staff healthy and getting more bodies in the hospitals. Ms. Krinkie said they asked Gov. Walz to implement the Emergency Management Assistance Compact that would allow health care workers licensed in other states to work here.

In a previous press conference, the governor said he had not been asked to do this. I don’t know what miscommunication occurred, but I sincerely hope he takes the hospital association’s advice and implements that compact so we can be certain we have enough medical professionals to handle the coronavirus.

On Friday the governor announced a new COVID-19 dashboard that allow the public to track the status of some of the resources. You can view that dashboard at https://mn.gov/covid19/.

We still have to do much more to help small businesses and workers weather this crisis, and I am working on those issues every single day. But if the governor’s models are accurate, then one of our top priorities right now must be making sure hospitals have enough ventilators, ICU beds, and staff to keep people alive when the surge hits Minnesota.

If you have any questions or feedback about how the state is managing the coronavirus or any other issue, please feel free to contact me any time at sen.john.jasinski@senate.mn.

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