Hospitals tell Senate staffing, not beds, is the limiting factor as ICU use rises

Hospital executives told the Senate committee that Arkansas is facing a staffing crisis even as bed counts remain flexible.

"Hospitals are full. They're at capacity," Beau Ryle, president and CEO of the Arkansas Hospital Association, told lawmakers, reporting around 451 ICU patients and roughly 3 percent of ICU beds available statewide. He said travel-nurse rates have jumped rapidly in recent weeks.

Greg Crane, president of Baptist Health's central region, painted a similar picture for his system: "We've already passed the peak for number of patients on ventilators," he said, and described a large recent rise in hospitalized and critical-care COVID patients, including many younger adults. He added that roughly 70 percent of Baptist staff are vaccinated, while 162 staff across his system were out or in quarantine that week.

Both witnesses emphasized staff shortages as the limiting factor. "We have a lot more physical capacity than we have staff to fill," Crane said. Ryle urged legislative support to raise pay or otherwise help hospitals compete with out-of-state offers and travel-nurse markets; he said the association is exploring ARPA (American Rescue Plan) funding for staffing support.

Committee members asked about using the National Guard, interstate compacts, temporary alternate-care facilities and ambulance turnaround delays; witnesses said interstate help is limited while multiple states surge simultaneously and that temporary field hospitals are difficult to sustain long-term because staffing, not physical space, is the constraint.

The committee asked hospitals to provide additional data on staffed-bed capacity gaps, use of traveler nurses, and how community investment dollars from managed-care passes have been spent to expand capacity.

Provenance: Testimony and Q&A with the Arkansas Hospital Association and Baptist Health (SEG 2063'SEG 2369).