Surging cases of COVID-19 in Ohio are resulting in high numbers of affected caregivers at Cleveland Clinic.
A hospital spokeswoman confirmed 970 caregivers at Cleveland Clinic were out due to the virus, triple the number from only two weeks ago.
The majority of caregivers have acquired the virus due to community spread.
Despite the high numbers, there is still adequate staffing by mobilizing caregivers to areas where they are needed the most. The Cleveland Clinic employs more than 50,000 people in Ohio.
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Early in the pandemic, hospitals were fighting for ventilators and PPE, but now across the country there is competition for nurses. There is a bidding war with hospitals willing to pay exorbitant salaries to secure the staff they need to care for the increasing number of patients.
One Colorado nurse left her $800 a week nursing job in April to become a traveling nurse with a two-month contract in New Jersey. Her new salary was around $5200 a week, and guaranteed proper protective equipment.
In the current surge, there are even higher offers for nurses willing to move.
In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, nurses can make more than $6,200 a week. A recent posting for a job in Fargo, North Dakota, offered more than $8,000 a week. Some can get as much as $10,000.
This shift is leading to shortages in smaller rural hospitals whose number of cases are surging too.
“That is a huge threat,” said Angelina Salazar, CEO of the Western Healthcare Alliance, a consortium of 29 small hospitals in rural Colorado and Utah. “There’s no way rural hospitals can afford to pay that kind of salary.”
