Dallas Hospital Forced to Move Pregnant Patients Out Due to COVID Surge, Nurse Shortage

Health officials at a hospital in Dallas said this week they recently decided to transfer some pregnant patients in response to the current COVID-19 surge and a nursing shortage impacting their facility and others across the country.

Joseph Chang, the chief medical officer at Parkland Hospital, described the decision as "gut-wrenching" during a Thursday interview with MSNBC.

"I had to make the decision two weeks ago to transfer pregnant patients away from Parkland Hospital," Chang said. "To have to make that decision is gut-wrenching."

Parkland Hospital is one of the largest in the country, with more than 1 million patient visits reported on average every year. Its website said it averages in excess of 10,000 newborn deliveries every year, with 10,893 newborn nursery discharges recorded in 2020.

Chang did not specify how many pregnant patients were transferred from the hospital as a result of the virus surge and strained staffing conditions. Newsweek reached out to Parkland Hospital for comment and will update this article with any response.

Earlier this week, representatives for hospitals throughout Texas warned state lawmakers about the rising numbers of new COVID-19 cases their teams are encountering, according to The Texas Tribune. More than 10,400 COVID-19 patients were receiving treatment in Texas hospitals as of August 11, state data showed. While Texas hospitals were reporting fewer than 2,000 cumulative COVID-19 hospitalizations during a lull in new cases at the start of the summer, those numbers have increased with the spread of the Delta variant, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies as more infectious than other virus variants.

"This crisis right now is really driving us to a place where it is really unsustainable," Chang said during a Tuesday meeting with state lawmakers, according to the Tribune.

Health officials said the bulk of COVID-19 patients being treated at Parkland Hospital were unvaccinated against the virus, MSNBC reported. According to virus data made publicly available by Dallas County Health and Human Services, an estimated 52.18 percent of the county's total population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of August 5.

The hospital has encouraged unvaccinated individuals to seek out COVID-19 vaccines in messages posted on its social media channels, with its most recent push tied to the anticipated start of the fall school semester.

In addition to the uptick in new virus infections, Chang told MSNBC the hospital is struggling with insufficient staffing numbers.

"I can't hire nurses fast enough. Right now in this hospital, I am 500 nurses down from where we need to be," Chang said.

He reiterated the number and added: "That's not an exaggeration—that's an exact number."

The struggles Parkland Hospital is having in expanding its nursing staff is common among other hospitals in Texas, according to the Tribune, with costs and the strain of high numbers of patients impacting efforts to bring in new employees to help.