OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — CHI Health Interim CEO, Jeanette Wojtalewicz released a statement on Thursday in response to questions about the hospital system and its response to the current COVID-19 surge.
Nebraska Medicine announced Thursday morning that it will implement crisis standards of care, but CHI says its system isn't doing that as of yet.
Wojtalewicz's statement:
"CHI Health is NOT enacting Crisis Standards of Care. Our 14 hospitals in Nebraska and southwest Iowa are stretched thin, but our staff continue to provide heroic care to the communities we serve.
We are in contingency care, which means we adapt daily to patients, staffing and bed availability. Our patient load and our staffing needs have grown exponentially. Currently, we have 223 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. 91 percent of those on ventilators are not vaccinated. Omicron is impacting our workforce. Currently, we have 379 employees out quarantining or have tested positive for COVID-19. This definitely puts a stress on our system.
Throughout the pandemic, we have been evaluating surgeries based on critical needs of each patient - delaying cases that can safely wait. That has not changed. Our message to the community - we are entering into a critical phase. We need your help. If you haven’t been vaccinated, please consider doing so and please mask up for your friends and family."
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