NEWPORT, N.H. — The novel coronavirus outbreak at a nursing home here has strained staffing so much that the home’s administrator has appealed for help on Facebook.
“Our outbreak currently with 19 residents and 11 staff has left our nursing staffing in a critical situation,” Woodlawn Administrator Chris Martin wrote on the home’s Facebook page Saturday morning. “We have residents needing more care and less staff to take the load. The State has some crisis staffing for outbreaks, but they have been unable to fill any of our needs or open shifts.”
Of the 11 staff members diagnosed with COVID-19, eight are in isolation, one has recovered and two are inactive, either on leave or no longer working at Woodlawn, Martin said in an interview.
The staffing shortage has been exacerbated by the departures of employees who aren’t infected. Some work at Woodlawn part-time and have full-time jobs elsewhere, Martin said. As many as 12 Woodlawn employees were told by their primary employers that they couldn’t keep their jobs if they stayed at Woodlawn, because of the outbreak, Martin said.
As a result, Woodlawn badly needs LNAs, or licensed nursing assistants, and has turned to a state emergency staffing program, without success.
“We are in frequent contact with the administration at Woodlawn Care Center and aware of the situation,” Jake Leon, a spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services wrote in an email Saturday afternoon. “Our contracted staffing vendor is continuing to work on bringing in local health care personnel to assist the facility.”
The state has a shortage of LNAs already, Martin noted. “It’s not like if I have 10 people leave, I can find 10 more,” he said.
In the absence of new hires or state assistance, Martin asked in his social media post for nursing help from the community. He called for members of the center’s staff to come in, even if only for a few hours. He offered to hire nurses and LNAs on a short-term basis with COVID pay and a recently improved pay scale. And he encouraged people to take the 8-hour course required to become a “health care partner,” or temporary LNA, and offered eight hours of wages for those completing the course and coming to work at Woodlawn.
“If you have an expired LNA license, have family or friends at Woodlawn, or just want to help us, this is a great way to give back to our eldest and most vulnerable Newport residents,” Martin wrote.
Three people came forward, but already one has had to back out because her employer said she can’t work where there’s an outbreak.
Woodlawn has plenty of personal protective equipment, designed to prevent caregivers from exposure to the coronavirus.
An employee tested positive on Oct. 21; the first resident tested positive on Oct. 28. The Woodlawn outbreak is the largest known outbreak in the Upper Valley, and it surfaced as New Hampshire is undergoing a surge of cases.
So far, the cases at Woodlawn have been mild, Martin, said in a phone interview Saturday evening.
“None of our residents are hospitalized,” he said. “So far it’s mostly asymptomatic.” That’s also true of the center’s employees.
The home has 45 residents and the same number of full-time equivalent staff. With as many as 20 staff unavailable, though many of them are part-time, remaining staff are working longer hours and extra shifts, which takes its own toll.
He wasn’t eager to post about the center’s situation on social media, but he wasn’t sure what else to do.
Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vnews.com or 603-727-3207.
