Baptist Union Co. recognizes all healthcare workers face high COVID-19 risks

Besides the normal physical and mental stresses of caring for sick people, all healthcare workers face additional risks during the COVID-19 crisis – life and death risks.

Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County (BMHUC) in New Albany is the third-largest hospital in the 15-county Northeast Mississippi area and regularly serves patients from six or seven counties.

BMHUC management and staff are making special efforts to support the morale of the hospital’s personnel. While clinical personnel are the first who come to mind when considering risk, housekeeping, administrative and other support personnel are also placed at higher than normal risk each time they report for work.

Baptist Hospital Union County recognizes their workers’ dedication.

Signage, such as that in these photos, placed around the BMHCC campus helps esprit de corps.

Focus on medical hygiene is at an all-time high. Use of masks and other protective gear is emphasized more than ever. And, as elsewhere, there is worry about whether there will be enough protective gear if the epidemic spikes unexpectedly or lasts several more months.

Epidemiologists have pointed out repeatedly that such epidemics often come in “waves” and areas of intense crisis tend to move around the country.

The initial wave of the coronavirus has not (as yet) struck Northeast Mississippi as dramatically as the upper East Coast of the U.S., our next-door neighbor, Louisiana, or even more densely populated parts of Mississippi.

However, counting 50 states and the District of Columbia, 51 total – only, 18 (35%) have more deaths per hundred thousand population than Mississippi.

The state health departments in Mississippi and most other states do not publish reliable information about how many confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths are among healthcare workers. In Oklahoma, 10.6% of confirmed coronavirus patients were healthcare workers; in Ohio, that share is roughly 20%. Those figures are as of Monday, April 6. Data is changing hour to hour and no reliable figures about coronavirus numbers among healthcare workers in Mississippi or the national are currently available.

National political leaders, and many of those in Mississippi, keep making “light-at-the-end-of-the tunnel” speeches. There’s nothing surprising or even wrong about that – as long as they keep their fact straight and do not contradict themselves. Elected leaders have some responsibility for keeping public morale high and preventing more widespread mental depression.

Some data hints that the first wave of the coronavirus epidemic may have reached or be approaching its peak.

However, anyone who closely follows the statements of Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top public health people will perceive that the politicians are usually more optimistic than the doctors. Fauci himself often speaks of “hopeful” outcomes, but he does not guarantee them.

The 15 counties of Northeast Mississippi are home to about 15% of Mississippi’s population and none would be considered densely populated. However, as of Saturday, April 11th, 19.3% of Mississippi’s COVID-19 deaths have been in Northeast Mississippi.

All healthcare workers at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County and throughout Northeast Mississippi are showing heroic courage when they report for work each day.