C.O. hospitals, first responders can be spread thin during busy summertime

(Updated: adding video, comments from St. Charles Health Syste, Bend Fire and Rescue)

COVID, summer visitors, population growth and tourism all affect emergency system

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Central Oregon is not only expected to have another intense fire season, but also a traditionally busy summer season -- perhaps the busiest. People have been itching to get outside, travel and enjoy all that Central Oregon has to offer. However, emergency personnel can only respond to so much at one time.

St. Charles Health System is currently hiring for 489 open full-time positions, along with 64 part-time, 138 relief positions, and have added 115 new positions. Hospital officials say it's not just that they're understaffed -- they're experiencing an increase in patients.

"We're running a high census. We still have COVID patients in our hospital, and we see more volume in our summer months," Debbie Robinson, chief nursing officer of St. Charles Bend, told NewsChannel 21 on Tuesday. "So all that is coming together at once for us to be experiencing these consistent high volumes."

The director of the St. Charles emergency department says there were a lot of people that did not get routine checkups because of COVID over the past year or more. Now, those people are coming into the hospital sicker.

"So now we're kind of catching up with people who are sick, and they need hospitalization," Michelle Brenholdt said. "And when those patients are coming into the hospital, they're sometimes staying a little extra time in the hospital, instead of being able to get better and be discharged in a few days."

At the peak of the pandemic, St. Charles stopped doing elective surgeries. Recently, they resumed -- but that also creates a backlog in care.

St. Charles has brought in traveling nurses to help alleviate some of the strain, but still expect to be at capacity throughout the summer.

It's not just the hospital affected by the problem. A Bend Fire and Rescue official says that sometimes they have to wait with a patient in the ambulance outside the emergency room, because the hospital has no room inside. The ripple effect means fire medics have to wait until they can answer other incoming calls.

"We'll have wait times at the ER to transfer patient crews from our care to the ER employees," Battalion Chief of Administration Trish Connolly said. "And if they don't have a bed available -- if they don't have somebody that's able to take and transfer care -- then we have to wait. So that definitely impacts our availability and our response."

Bend Fire and Rescue is also trying to keep up with call volumes. It relies on the Redmond and Sunriver fire departments to step in and assist, if needed.

Connolly says the goal is to keep up with the growth of the city, since more people mean more calls.