NEW ORLEANS — Since Hurricane Katrina, parts of New Orleans East have struggled to recover. That includes the hospital system there. And the coronavirus was the new hospital’s biggest test so far.
“March 9th is our August 29th. That was the day that our first patient was admitted that was positive,” Velma Johnson told WGNO.
Johnson is the Director of Inpatient Nursing for New Orleans East Hospital. She’s also a Healthcare Hero of the Day for all she did to help her team fight the pandemic.
“And then we went from having a census of maybe 6 ICU patients to 14, and we only have a 14 bed ICU,” she said.
Johnson said that the stress started to build on the nursing staff as the situation grew more severe.
“We had maybe a death every month or every two months. There was a day that we had 4 deaths in one day,” Johnson said.
Johnson knew she had to take action to help reduce the stress and keep her nursing team focused. For more on that, click on our story at the top of this page.
Healthcare Hero of the Day is sponsored by Schonberg Care.
