Cody Regional Health To Get National Guard Assistance

Cody Regional Health will be receiving direct assistance from the Wyoming National Guard, as COVID-19 cases still necessitate Crisis Standards of Care in Cody.

COVID-19 continues to put enormous strain on the staff and resources in hospitals across the nation. Unfortunately, in Park County, things are no better. Both Cody Regional Health and Powell Valley Healthcare are stretched thin as they work to give the best possible treatment to all patients with fewer staff and resources.

Cody Regional Health implemented Crisis Standards of Care on Sept. 8 due to the ongoing influx of COVID-19 cases. Since then, the situation has not improved. On Sept. 22, the hospital announced elective surgeries would be conducted on a “day to day basis” as the number of COVID and medical patients remains high.

However, assistance is coming.

Cody Regional Health will be receiving direct assistance from the Wyoming National Guard through at least the end of the year.

A statement issued by the Cody Regional Health Foundation confirmed four National Guard members will be stationed at the hospital thru December. Rather than offering direct medical service, they will be serving in several essential “non-clinical support” tasks.

“Cody Regional Health is still in Crisis Standards of Care, and like many other hospitals across the state and the nation, CRH is currently facing staffing issues. Our Incident Command Team worked with hospital Senior Leadership to request support from the National Guard. Our hospital has welcomed two National Guard members this week, and two more will arrive on Oct. 4. These volunteer Service Members will be assisting through Dec. 31. They will begin helping provide testing to the community and long-term care, assist long term care with resident support, patient transport, and other non-clinical support throughout the organization.”

As of Sunday, Sept. 26, there were 173 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Park County. As of Sept. 24, there were 12 COVID-19 hospitalizations at Cody Regional Health and all six I.C.U. beds were occupied.

Is there any relief in the future for Cody? Possibly.

In his most recent update, Park County Public Health Officer Dr. Aaron Billin suggested that the current surge, which has been worse than the initial one, maybe on its way out.

“Park County active cases and hospitalizations are up (pandemic high of 19),” Dr. Billin says,  “but the wastewater testing data is starting to trend down (signaling the beginning of a decline).”

The Wyoming Department of Health laboratory has changed the wastewater testing results to indicate the average viral load per person in each city population (on a logarithmic scale). This testing helps determine how prevalent COVID-19 is in the systems of Park County residents.