In Mississippi, there are too many patients and not enough staff

In Mississippi, there are too many patients and not enough staff

Transcript¹

Mississippi, one of the states being hit hardest by the omicron variant², is struggling to keep hospital doors open because of staffing issues.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Some states are emerging from the omicron surge, but hospitals in Mississippi are in crisis. Demand for beds are up, but there are shortages of staff. Shalina Chatlani with the Gulf³ States Newsroom reports from Brookhaven, Miss.

SHALINA CHATLANI, BYLINE⁴: Brookhaven, population 12,500, is a sleepy little town split in half by railroad tracks and dotted with small businesses, arcades⁵ and mom-and-pop diners. One of its biggest employers is King's Daughters Medical Center, where CEO Alvin Hoover says the pandemic has been hard to weather.

ALVIN HOOVER: I've been looking at a worst-case scenario⁶ getting worse and worse for two years now.

CHATLANI: King's Daughters is a small operation of about 99 beds. But since the omicron surge, two-thirds of those beds have been unavailable. That's because there's not enough staff.

HOOVER: Patients come to the emergency room. They wait and wait because we don't have a room. We don't have a nurse.

CHATLANI: Nurses are out sick, have quit or retired⁷ or burned out. More commonly, they're leaving to become travel nurses who can hop⁸ from hospital to hospital on lucrative⁹ contracts. Hoover's hospital usually pays full-time¹⁰ nurses around $25 an hour, but he has to pay a travel nurse five times that rate. And to keep the nurses he has left, he's offered higher pay for a month and bonuses.

HOOVER: Over the course of the pandemic, you could say millions of dollars

CHATLANI: Even before the pandemic, it wasn't easy keeping King's Daughters doors open. Because Mississippi has declined to expand Medicaid, hospitals here get less federal funding. But if you live in Brookhaven, King's Daughters is critical. Downtown, longtime resident Sandy Freeman gets lunch at Janie's Pastries¹¹. She's been to King's Daughters many times.

SANDY FREEMAN: I got asthma¹². Sometimes, when I get sick, if I don't stop it when it starts, it'll get bad. If there ain't no hospital, then what're you supposed to do?

CHATLANI: Most hospitals outside of Brookhaven are at least 30 minutes away, so she relies on the local medical center.

(SOUNDBITE OF BEEP)

FREEMAN: It means a lot when you need it (laughter).

CHATLANI: Derek McKenzie has been a nurse here for nine years and understands why quitting to become a travel nurse is tempting¹³.

DEREK MCKENZIE: I mean, I'm not saying that they don't pay me good. I'm just saying I'm not going to make what a travel nurse makes even up in Jackson right now.

CHATLANI: Jackson is the capital. McKenzie doesn't blame anyone for chasing a buck¹⁴. But he says there are downsides to travel nursing.

MCKENZIE: It's never a guaranteed full-time thing. I mean, it's - I've been here since I got out of nursing school. I mean, this has been my home base. Everybody I know has been here.

CHATLANI: He says King's Daughters is like family to him. It's demanding and hectic¹⁵, so, of course, he would like to be paid more, like his travel nurse cousin in Texas, who earned over $200,000 last year. But he understands this small hospital's finances are tight. And his family lives here, too.

MCKENZIE: I don't have any desire to up and try relearning new facilities, new doctors and all of that.

CHATLANI: The hospital would need to hire about 30 people to get the nursing department running smoothly¹⁶ again. But hospital CEO Alvin Hoover says no one is applying. He says he'd welcome back nurses who quit to take more lucrative travel gigs.

HOOVER: If they come in and say, I quit today, then I don't necessarily want that nurse back. But you know what? If they come back and say, we'd like to work here again, we'd hire them.

CHATLANI: Hoover says he's not worried about the hospital completely shutting down short term. It's been surviving on supplemental government funding during the pandemic. But it's unclear how much longer that will last and what the health care landscape will look like after the current surge.

For NPR News, I'm Shalina Chatlani in Brookhaven, Miss.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

3 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 arcades   

n.商场( arcade的名词复数 )；拱形走道（两旁有商店或娱乐设施）；连拱廊；拱形建筑物

参考例句：

• Clothes are on sale in several shopping arcades these days. 近日一些服装店的服装正在大减价。 来自轻松英语会话---联想4000词(下)
• The Plaza Mayor, with its galleries and arcades, is particularly impressive. 市长大厦以其别具风格的走廊和拱廊给人留下十分深刻的印象。 来自互联网

6 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

7 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

8 hop   

n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过

参考例句：

• The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest.孩子们举行比赛，看谁单足跳跃最快。
• How long can you hop on your right foot?你用右脚能跳多远？

9 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

10 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

11 pastries   

n.面粉制的糕点

参考例句：

• He gave a dry laugh, then sat down and started on the pastries. 杜新箨说着干笑一声，坐下去就吃点心。 来自子夜部分
• Mike: So many! I like Xijiang raisins, beef jerky, and local pastries. 麦克：太多了。我最喜欢吃新疆葡萄干、牛肉干和风味点心。

12 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

13 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

14 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

15 hectic   

adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的

参考例句：

• I spent a very hectic Sunday.我度过了一个忙乱的星期天。
• The two days we spent there were enjoyable but hectic.我们在那里度过的两天愉快但闹哄哄的。

16 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。