When COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations reached peak numbers in Torrington this past November, Banner Health sent reinforcement staff to Torrington Community Hospital to help.
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PHOENIX, Ariz. – When COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations reached peak numbers in Torrington this past November, Banner Health sent reinforcement staff to Torrington Community Hospital to help.
As the pandemic loosens its grip on Goshen County – Torrington Community Hospital has just one patient hospitalized with COVID-19 as of press time Monday – cities like Phoenix, Ariz. are experiencing their worst surge yet. Torrington Community Hospital CEO Zach Miller, RN, and his wife, Jaclyn Miller, RN, returned the favor last week when they traveled to the southwest to lend their hands at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale, a 20-minute drive from downtown Phoenix.
Between Jan. 3, the day the Millers arrived in Maricopa County, and Jan. 4, the number of total COVID-19 cases there jumped from 4,504 to 7,016, according to data from Maricopa County Public Health. The county has the third-most confirmed cases in the United States, behind Los Angeles and Cook counties, and the fifth-highest COVID-19 related death rate, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
“Being there gave great perspective,” Zach said. “We can get insulated in our small bubble that we live in, in Goshen County.”
Hospital-specific data is unavailable, but throughout Maricopa County, under 10% of Adult Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds are available, with roughly 63% of them in use by COVID-19 patients as of press time.
For Jaclyn, who spent all of her shifts for the week tending to COVID-19 ICU patients, the experience in one of Maricopa County’s largest hospitals was “eye-opening.”
“It was an amazing experience to help and be part of that and help in a time where they need all the help they can get,” she said. “But on the flip side, it was exhausting. It was a long week.”
Jaclyn and Zach worked four 12-hour shifts throughout the week. Zach said roughly 40 team members from Banner Health’s Western Division have been or will be deployed to Arizona in the coming weeks.
“As (Torrington’s) numbers have declined, we have a little bit of capacity and can go,” Zach said.
Zach’s message is vigilance. COVID-19 case numbers are down in Goshen County, but the pandemic isn’t over. Vigilance in COVID-19 mitigating measures, including social distancing, face coverings and hand washing, is still necessary until at least vulnerable populations receive COVID-19 vaccinations, he said.
“The fact of the matter is, the people in these large cities and large ICUs often transferred in from rural locations to big hospitals, just like we transfer patients to large metro areas to receive intensive care,” Zach said. “That continued vigilance is my rallying cry, let’s get through this and get into spring and summer and get vaccination completed.”
