Rural Kansas nurses say strain of new COVID-19 surge has taken a ‘significant toll’

With limited resources, hospitals in rural areas of Kansas have struggled in recent weeks as COVID-19 cases have surged and hospitalizations are on the rise. In Great Bend, nurses say they’re struggling to keep up.

One-third to half of the patients coming to the University of Kansas Health System’s Great Bend campus are there for COVID-related reasons, said Peter Mick, an emergency room nurse.

“Working in the emergency room the past several weeks, we’ve seen a significant uptick in the number of patients that we see daily,” Mick told The Star in a video interview.

The central Kansas hospital has 33 total beds, with five in the emergency room.

COVID-19 patients arriving at the hospital are experiencing fatigue, fever, nausea and significant shortness of breathe.

The hospital does not have an intensive care unit so health care workers have to find a place to transfer more serious cases.

“It’s been a struggle,” Mick said of finding places with availability to transfer patients.

“I think the biggest challenge for us here is getting these patients transferred out, but also caring for patients with the other complaints that come up.”

The Great Bend facility has sent patients to the University of Kansas Health System’s main campus in Kansas City — more than 200 miles away — and hospitals in Nebraska. They have also received requests to take patients from other places including a hospital in Texas.

Mick said the latest surge of cases has been “taking a significant toll.”

“We’re seeing this over and over again and we’re seeing younger people.”

He encouraged those eligible to get vaccinated. According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, about 390 people per 1,000, or 39%, in Barton County are fully vaccinated.

Hannah Rios, a nurse in the Med Surge unit at the Great Bend campus said at the beginning of the summer, they were seeing one COVID-19 patient every couple of weeks, but now have four.

“They’re younger and they’re sicker so their length of stay has been drawn out versus what it was the last time the surge happened,” Rios said. “We have an area blocked off for our nurses to care for COVID positive patients. That pulls from the rest of the unit when you’re dedicating one or two staff members to provide direct care for those patients.”

Rios said nurses try to recognize anyone who is declining early so they can start finding a bed for them at a larger hospital. Arranging transport services, whether by ground or air, has also been a challenge.

Hospitals in other rural areas of Kansas have also seen their COVID-19 numbers rise. On Wednesday, HaysMed had 15 patients. In July, the hospital in Hays recorded at least one day with no COVID-19 patients.

More than 600 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in Kansas as of Tuesday.