LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts announced Wednesday that the state is bringing back a transfer center to help overstretched Nebraska hospitals find places to send patients.

The move is aimed at helping hospitals cope with a new wave of COVID-19 patients, driven by the spread of the delta variant.

Angie Ling, incident commander with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, said the center will help relieve some of the stress on hospital staff by taking over the job of making call after call for an available bed.

“Our medical staff are hurting something fierce right now,” she said.

At a press briefing, Ling said Nebraska’s larger hospitals are seeing occupancy rates of 85% to 100% on a daily basis, between COVID patients and people with other types of health problems.

Opening of the transfer center marks the return of yet another step taken during the previous peak in COVID-19 cases.

Last week, Ricketts declared a hospital staffing emergency and took two actions aimed at helping address the situation. They included an executive order waiving some state licensing laws and regulations and a directed health measure limiting some types of elective surgeries.

Ling said the transfer center is being set up by Nomi Health, one of the businesses that helped put together the TestNebraska program. The center will be up and running by Saturday and be staffed by nurses in the United States and Philippines, who will be available at all hours.

Nebraska hospitals collaborated on a transfer center last fall and winter, during the height of the pandemic in the state. But the center closed as cases dropped.

For the full article click HERE