D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) on Tuesday imposed a public health emergency in the District until late January, an action that allows hospitals to address staffing needs and other concerns as hospitalizations rise throughout the region.
City health officials and the hospital association have said in recent weeks that emergency rooms have been particularly stressed by residents showing up with mild symptoms or seeking coronavirus tests. The governors of Maryland and Virginia declared 30-day states of emergency this month, aimed at easing the burden on overwhelmed hospitals.
At the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Bowser had declared both a public emergency and a public health emergency, moves that granted her the ability to order mandatory medical quarantines and request federal disaster relief funds, among other measures. In July, as new cases waned, Bowser ended the public health emergency but extended the public emergency — which meant she could still establish mask and vaccination requirements, and alter government services in response to the pandemic.
In the mayoral order Tuesday, Bowser said over-encumbered emergency rooms spurred her to reinstate the public health emergency until Jan. 26 in a limited capacity. The order says it pertains specifically to hospitals, medical facilities and personnel, including mortuary services — and provides “the authority necessary to modify administrative procedures, deadlines and standards” to quickly address the needs of hospitals.
“The physical capacity of hospitals remains strong, but emergency rooms are overwhelmed with persons suffering from covid-19 and persons who fear having covid-19, causing long delays both for them and other patients,” the order reads. “Further hospitals cannot use all their bed capacity due to staff shortages.”
The order notes that some hospitals are facing 25 percent reductions in staff due to coronavirus-related leave.
The seven-day averages of coronavirus hospitalizations in Maryland and Virginia on Tuesday were 3,543 and 3,567, respectively — record highs during the pandemic, according to Washington Post data. The seven-day average for hospitalizations was 888 in D.C. on Monday, also a record, though District health officials have expressed they are less concerned about capacity and more worried about staffing shortages affecting facilities.
In its letter, the D. C. Hospital Association asked for flexibilities including a hastened process to consider licensure applications and hire graduate professionals, and for health-care practitioners in some cases to be allowed to engage in activities not authorized by their license under supervision if “doing so is necessary to allow the health care facility to meet required staffing ratios or otherwise ensure the continued and safe delivery of health care services.”
