COLUMBUS, Ohio – In central Ohio, members of the Ohio National Guard have been deployed to additional hospitals as the virus surge worsens in the region.
What You Need To Know
- The National Guard arrived at additional OhioHealth and Mount Carmel hospitals
- Ten hospitals in central Ohio are receiving support from the National Guard
- The National Guard was first deployed to three Columbus hospitals during the last week of December
- Gov. Mike DeWine has activated 2,300 members of the National Guard to support hospitals
Members of the National Guard have been assigned to five additional OhioHealth hospitals — Riverside Methodist, Doctors Hospital, Dublin Methodist, Marion General and Berger Hospital in Circleville. Some of the teams began working in the hospitals on Tuesday, OhioHealth officials said.
Mount Carmel St. Ann’s and Mount Carmel Grove City have also welcomed service members to work at the hospitals.
“Starting last week, National Guard personnel began working at Mount Carmel Grove City and Mount Carmel St. Ann’s. Currently, they serve in non-clinical roles, such as patient transport, patient safety attendants, EVS, stock management and nutrition services," Mount Carmel officials told Spectrum News.
The National Guard was first deployed to three Columbus hospitals during the last week of December: Ohio State Wexner, OhioHealth Grant and Mount Carmel East.
Ohio Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr. said the Ohio National Guard is stationed at 48 total hospitals. That includes 30 northeast Ohio hospitals, a dozen of which are in Cuyahoga County. As of a Thursday update, 10 central Ohio hospitals were receiving Ohio National Guard support.
Hospitals are welcoming the support as they face high patient volumes and the challenge of their own staff contracting the virus.
“We are appreciative of Gov. DeWine’s efforts to deploy the Ohio National Guard across Ohio to assist hospitals in a variety of ways as we manage this current COVID-19 surge,” OhioHealth officials said.
Gov. Mike DeWine has activated 2,300 members of the National Guard to support hospitals.
“This includes approximately 200 Guard members offering medical support, and approximately 2,100 offering general support, including testing, food services, in-hospital patient transportation, administrative tasks, and more,” DeWine said in a statement Thursday.
The Ohio National Guard’s planning teams are working with state health officials to forecast the progression of the virus wave in the state. Personnel can be reassigned as different regions become priorities, officials said.
Franklin County is averaging more than 2,700 cases per day. The county has the fourth-highest rate of cases per capita in the state.
The Cincinnati area is another region of increasing concern as Hamilton County reports the second-highest case rate in the state.
In Cincinnati, the Ohio National Guard is supporting a UC Health testing site and two other community testing locations. Hospitals in southwest Ohio could be assigned National Guard teams soon, Dr. Jennifer Wall Forrester, UC Health’s associate chief medical officer, said Thursday.
“It's my understanding that as the northern part of the state maybe starts to see some plateauing, that we may get more National Guard to help in our hospitals as well, as we’re still on the rise here. This will definitely be a welcome sight,” she said.
On Thursday, Summa Health said members of the National Guard currently deployed at their testing site in Akron will move to a more southern area next week. The health system said it will close a mass-testing site as a result, also citing declining demand for tests.