The “heroes work here” sign in front of St. James Parish Hospital has been long gone, along with open intensive care unit beds in the state of Louisiana.
Staffers at the rural hospital spent hours each day in January calling larger hospitals in search of the elusive beds for covid-19 patients. They leveraged personal connections and begged nurses elsewhere to take patients they know are beyond their hospital’s care level.
But as patients have waited to be transferred out of the hospital, which is about 45 minutes outside New Orleans, doctors such as Landon Roussel are forced to make unthinkable choices.
