hospitals

Hospitals are grappling with what to do, since federal and state law are at odds, and both carry financial penalties for non-compliance.

Chris Setzer, an ICU nurse at Osceola Regional Medical Center, says it’s not a nursing shortage, just a shortage of nurses willing to work under current conditions.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of workers have missed out on overtime and holiday pay in recent weeks, including UF Health in Jacksonville. In Cleveland, city administrators set up a "war room" to deal with the paycheck backlog.

The bill would direct health care providers to allow patients or residents to have visitors. If access needs to be restricted for health or safety concerns, "alternate visitation protocols" would need to be developed.

Many hospitals are dealing with a flood of people with COVID, including those primarily admitted for other reasons. These infections still drain the workforce and can put health workers and other patients at higher risk for contracting the virus.

In December, UF researchers predicted the omicron wave would reach its peak in February, but with the recent surge they’re now predicting the variant will peak within the next two weeks in the state.

Thousands of kids in Florida are testing positive for the coronavirus. Doctors say hospitals are seeing about as many patients as they did during the delta surge.

Florida Hospital Association president Mary Mayhew says staff having to isolate due to the virus and workers taking lucrative travel jobs are posing challenges for hospitals amid the omicron surge.

Montana's largest hospital recently signed employment contracts with two dozen foreign nurses. Nationwide, a backlog of 5,000 international nurses await approval to enter the U.S.

Nearby hospitals including Memorial Healthcare System and Broward Health are taking on patients from Holy Cross Health.