©Akron Life Magazine

There’s been no getting back to normal for the staff in Western Reserve Hospital’s emergency department.

“We feel like we’re in the midst of it,” says Susan Straus, director of critical care and cardiovascular services. “Our volume and acuity seems to be increasing, even from last year.”

That means patients are sicker and need more care.

“Unlike other medical illnesses and injuries, where it’s a fairly short length of stay,” says Dr. Rudd “Sonny” Bare, division chief of emergency medicine, “when you’re admitted with COVID, it’s a long, very tough, often heartbreaking process in the hospital. These folks are here 10 to 14 days and more often than not, go home on oxygen.”

But this year-and-a-half-plus of working through the pandemic has given emergency department staffers time to innovate the ways they collaborate and deliver treatment, such as monoclonal antibodies for qualifying low-risk COVID patients.

“They’re proteins that help your body fight off COVID-19,” Bare says. “[It’s] not nearly as good as being vaccinated, but if you do get COVID or the breakthrough infection, we can get to you early with antibody therapy… it reduces hospitalizations and death by 70 percent, which is really significant.”

Western Reserve’s emergency department is fully staffed, but the higher, sicker patient volume is creating overcrowding. Staffers have been floating there from other floors and signing up for more shifts through the All Hands on Deck program, and more support staff has been added. They are also testing patients in the emergency waiting room and connecting patients with primary care providers since many haven’t been seeing primary care doctors. Plus, collaboration extends to helping emergency medical services and fire crews access timely testing and regularly discussing the latest safety guidelines, like wearing N95 masks on all calls and full personal protective equipment around patients with COVID symptoms.

With limited visitation, families can’t always be with their loved ones, so emergency department workers have played a deeper role in connecting patients to their families, including during end-of-life discussions. And since staffers are often from the Cuyahoga Falls area, where the hospital is based, it’s not uncommon for them to know a patient personally, which can put patients at ease.

“Knowing that you are going to a hospital where you have family members, friends and neighbors is very comforting to a patient,” Bare says.

While it’s been difficult, staffers are also reminded of why they’re doing these crucial jobs.

“We want to take care of patients as if they were our family,” Straus says. “We’re all in this to make a difference.”