Firelands CEO pleads for cooperation

SANDUSKY — In the early days of the pandemic, public health officials and hospital administrators scrambled to prepare for what they feared could be an overwhelming need for services. It's good they did, according to the CEO of Firelands Regional Health System, who is sounding the alarm that we're at what could be the worst point. "We have over 40 sick COVID patients in the hospital. We also have an equal amount of associates out with COVID, primarily contracting the virus from community spread," Jeremy Normington-Slay said. "Compare these numbers to less than two weeks ago, when we had only three COVID patients and two associates out of work." Normington-Slay is urging community members to take every precaution to keep their friends and neighbors and family members safe from acquiring the deadly disease. "This is not fear mongering. These are simply the facts of where we are at and a personal request from me on the behalf of our caregivers and the community." Normington-Slay posted a lengthy message online Saturday asking locals to follow the coronavirus recommendations of the Erie County Health Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — including wearing masks, washing your hands and avoiding "unnecessary" gatherings. Firelands Regional Medical Center has so many COVID-19 patients that it outgrew its isolated COVID-19 unit, requiring a second isolation unit, and then outgrew that second unit — requiring a third. To date, Erie County's had a total 196 COVID-19 hospitalizations, 1,661 cases and 60 deaths, according to data from the state health department. Normington-Slay listed several groups of people who need the community to take action to halt the spread of COVID: • "Nursing personnel working 60-70 hours per week" • "Countless associates who have moved from part time to full time, or from one department to another, to assist with COVID care" • "Employee parents who are attempting to juggle child care in order to pick up more shifts at the hospital" • "Community surgeons who are canceling procedures in order to free up surgical staff to work in our ER and inpatient units" • "Support staff team members, including housekeeping, dietary, rehab, lab, radiology and other personnel, who are entering the COVID units to care for patients on a daily basis" • "People in our community, who are having elective (yet very much needed) medical procedures delayed to free up valuable staff resources" • "Families of those sick with COVID who are struggling to put one foot in front of the other" • "Local business owners who are threatened with another shut down" The CEO added that not everything is "doom and gloom." He praised the "amazing staff and physician team" which is "meeting the needs of our community and providing excellent patient care." "Please help us continue to do so by taking this seriously," he said. Normington-Slay added that people with serious medical conditions, like cardiac and neurological issues, are not going to them to get checked out. He said not getting help can have negative outcomes, and that the hospital is "a safe place to access for care."