Overrun PA Hospitals Get Help From Federal COVID 'Strike Teams'

PENNSYLVANIA — Pennsylvania's beleaguered healthcare system, overrun in many places by COVID-19 hospitalizations and facing staffing shortages, is getting some much needed relief.

The federal government has deployed "strike teams" to assist the state's highest need areas. Specifically, hospitals in the York and Scranton areas will receive a boost.

In a statement, Pennsylvania's new Acting Secretary of Health, Keara Klinepeter, thanked the Biden administration for taking Gov. Tom Wolf's request for help "seriously."

“The Wolf Administration has worked closely with the federal government and health systems to provide necessary information for the feds to make their determination of how to best support the commonwealth," Klinepeter said in a statement. "However, we know there is still work to be done to support this industry and we will continue to address the needs of hospitals and health care systems to provide the best care to our fellow Pennsylvanians.”

The teams will open about 30 additional acute care beds at Scranton Regional Hospital and WellSpan York. Further, they will provide much needed additional staff for the hospitals, as well as additional EMS support.

"The exact number of individuals to be deployed is still to be determined," the state said. The strike teams will be in the state for 30 days.

Although the strike teams are, for now, only being disbursed to the two systems, Klinepeter says the impacts will be felt across the state, as relieving pressure on overburdened hospitals relieves neighboring areas in a trickle effect.

The seven-day average daily hospitalization rate remains close to the highest point of the year, sitting at 4,695 for the period ending Dec. 30. Klinepeter says that the federal help received is important, but it's not enough.

“We must continue to support the health care community holistically, which means decreasing the number of people presenting at their local emergency departments while providing capacity to increase the number of patients discharged to other facilities when clinically appropriate," she said. "The federal support announced today is aligned with these goals, however, we know that this alone will not solve our capacity issues."