ST. LOUIS â Area hospitals, COVID-19 vaccine now in hand, began on Tuesday the herculean task of delivering doses into the arms of thousands of front-line staff, a job of crushing urgency.
Hospitals are already stretched. The number of coronavirus patients has doubled since the beginning of November and tripled since mid-October. Thatâs left health systems planning a vaccine rollout without enough hands to do the work. Mercy has already mobilized staff in other roles â pharmacists and administrators, for instance â to help deliver vaccinations. More than 100 SSM Health employees have volunteered for vaccine duty. BJC HealthCare is looking to partners at Washington University to help out.
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The Mercy system will be hiring over 200 people systemwide, including 10 at Mercy Hospital Washington, for its temporary COVID-19 support roles intended to help during the âhospital season.âÂ
Workers hired for these roles will hold the positions for six to eight weeks. Both clinical and nonclinical positions are available.
Mercy Executive Vice President and Administrative Officer Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer said planning for the program began Monday, Nov. 30, after reviewing results from a survey distributed to clinical staff and hearing from Mercy administrators.
Bentzen-Mercer said the biggest response heard from the clinical staff was needing an âextra pair of handsâ and general help.
Fifty-nine new Franklin County residents were reported as COVID-19 positive Friday, among them a newborn girl in Beaufort, a 7-year-old child in Robertsville (sex not reported), an 83-year-old woman in St. Clair, an 83-year-old man in Villa Ridge and an 86-year-old woman in Washington.Â
Since March, 5,739 people have tested positive in Franklin County, according to the county commission.
Fridayâs report noted that the data did not reflect a full 24 hours because âthe data import timing has changed in systems.â Saturdayâs report is expected to include a full 24 hours.Â
âToday and yesterday were blended numbers as an attempt to catch up to the actual time frame in which we get full data reports,â said Franklin County Presiding Commissioner Tim Brinker. âWe were always lagging a little bit behind, so this will allow us to catch up 12 hours. This is just a matter of getting more current than we were.â He said the 59 cases reported today re