Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced a “medical staffing surge” on Tuesday to fight the surge in Covid-19.
“The current [Covid] surge is not only increasing the burden on our healthcare system and filling available hospital beds, but it is also affecting our healthcare workers who are already spread thin and operating under immense strain and stress,” Hogan said.
The effort includes the launch of the www.marylandmednow.com website to recruit clinicians. It also includes a request that Maryland colleges and universities immediately work to award academic credit to student for hands-on work experience in healthcare during the pandemic. It also encourages colleges and universities to allow healthcare students who are in their final semester to have satisfied all graduation requirements to get an early exit — along with expedited testing and licensing requirements — to more expeditiously get these people into the workforce.
It also calls for working with the state’s Department of Education to use nondeployed school nurses and other health staff to assist with the state’s testing and vaccination sites.
In addition, hospitals also being required to submit patient surge plans.
Other states are taking steps as well. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on hospital systems to identify retired nurses and doctors to bolster staff.