LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The rise in hospitalizations is pushing many medical facilities to their limits.
A handful of Arkansas hospitals recently opened up more beds to help address the issue.
But CEOs, like Rex Jones with Magnolia Regional Medical Center, said the main problem isn't the amount of beds.
"I have a physical bed, I just don't have enough staff to take care of the patients if they were in those beds," he said.
It's the same story around the entire state, according to Stephanie Free, Infection Preventionist at Baxter Regional Medical Center.
"The staffing is probably more of an issue than even the bed capacity right now," she said.
Rural hospitals have the room for more patients but not necessarily the people to treat them, according to Jones.
"It's frustrating for everyone not to have more bodies in the system to pull from," he said.
Jones said this only adds more stress to his team that's already been stretched-to-the limit at Magnolia Regional Medical Center.
"The more prolonged the problem is, it gets to a point where everybody's reserve that they have is gone," he said.
According to Free, at Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home, the omicron variant is taking its toll as it spreads through their team.
"We have additional employees out with omicron COVID now too, so it is definitely a stretch, not just for beds, but for staff as well," she said.
Staffing's also one of the biggest issues throughout the state and one that Conway Regional Hospital has had to figure out as they recently received funding for 34 additional beds through the American Rescue Plan Act, according to CEO Matt Troup.
"Those additional funds help us to not only directly take care of COVID patients, but it also allows us to expand our capacity for that 45-day period in ways that we might not otherwise be able to do absent those funds," he said.
Troup said the hospital is bringing in outside help while also offering incentives for staff to work longer hours.
"It's a 'both and', not an, 'either or.' We've got to employ both strategies to really be effective," he said.
While the long days continue inside hospitals across our state, healthcare workers are pleading for some patience.
"Everyone's doing the best they can with what they have," Jones said.
In total the American Rescue Plan Act Steering Committee approved funding for more than 250 additional beds at hospitals across our state.