Federal team to help Louisiana hospital amid COVID-19 surge

The federal government has sent a 33-person disaster medical assistance team to Our Lady of the Lake to help the Baton Rouge, La.-based hospital care for a major influx of COVID-19 patients, CNN reported.

The team, which arrived Aug. 2, consists of two physicians, three advanced practice providers, seven nurses, 11 paramedics, one respiratory therapist, two pharmacists, one mental health specialist and six administrative support specialists. 

"Their team will be here for one month and will allow us to open six additional [COVID-19] ICU beds and provide clinical assistance to our existing [COVID-19] units," hospital spokesperson Ryan Cross told CNN

The team's deployment comes after the hospital sent requests to the state and federal government for staffing support, Mr. Cross said.

Our Lady of the Lake said it is admitting an average of one COVID-19 patient per hour and is seeing "the highest volume of COVID-19 patients the region has experienced thus far due to the delta variant," according to CNN.

The hospital was treating 155 COVID-19 patients as of Aug. 2, and about one-third of them were in intensive care. On July 26, the hospital implemented a three-week pause on elective surgeries amid rising COVID-19 patient volume.

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