Health protection & promotion

We've seemed to hit the apex of admission needs over in the special needs unit. One person described it in healthcare linugo: "It is like a giant medical unit in a hospital," as medical needs have increased as has acuity these past two days. Yet, this night shift has seen no new admissions and the day shift was amazing at d/c-ing folks.

But we are not forgetting our colleagues working out and about in various parishes, getting primary care needs met and introducing health protection amongst the people. I can't cite exact numbers at this time, but client acute care visits have numbered in the 90s in the local public health for two days straight, up from 60-70/day by report from last week. (This is all in a 8-9 hour shift.) Vaccinations...an amazing story. It is now common practice to have the vaccine coolers of 200-300 shots come back empty from vans coming back from rural parishes. We estimate 600-700 individual shots given Tuesday at Lafayette Parish PubH Unit, most by one nurse as our staffing has felt the effects of less folks in round 2.

One particular community to think about, and pray for (if you pray for things), is the small town of Kaplan in Vermillion parish. The town was visited by Team 1 admin folks yesterday and they spoke of abject poverty and high-needs in the people holed-up in the VFW shelter there. Please pause to consider their lives.