Sioux Falls VA Medical Center prepares for influx of COVID-19 patients

April 6, 2020

Hallways are emptier, staff members are cross-training and preparations are being made to add beds at the Sioux Falls VA Medical Center, where veterans with COVID-19 are expected to need care.

The hospital is doing only emergency surgeries and is moving most nonemergency visits to phone or video appointments.

“We want to keep as many people out of the hospital right now and be able to socially isolate them to keep them safe and also keep our staff safe because we need our staff on full power when the predicted surge comes,” said Lisa Simoneau, who was about two months into her new role as director of the Sioux Falls VA when COVID-19 began to affect operations.

“Right now, it’s very empty in the hallways while we are preparing staff.”

For Simoneau, who has been with the VA for more than 30 years, the role in Sioux Falls represents a long-time career goal. She most recently was associate director for the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio and started in Sioux Falls early this year.

She had said for a long time that if the leadership job in Sioux Falls ever opened up, she was hoping to land it.

“I’d done a lot of research and met a lot of people in the VA who have worked here before, and all of them told me it would be the perfect community for me,” she said. “And so far, it really is the perfect community for me.”

She now leads a VA that serves roughly 27,000 veterans annually from Dakota Dunes north to Aberdeen and from Wagner east to Spirit Lake, Iowa.

The Sioux Falls center has 98 beds, which includes 58 nursing home beds.

Of the remaining 40 beds, 28 are medical/surgical, six are mental health and six are intensive care.

“Right now, we’re comfortable. The staff is really stepping up,” Simoneau said. “They’re embracing the change and the opportunity to serve in new positions, so right now we have the staff we need to cover the beds we’re preparing for. We are looking at expanding the number of beds in case the surge comes above bed count. We don’t have PPE (personal protective equipment) concerns at this time.”

Some existing staff who no longer have as many appointments are doing skills labs to prepare them to take care of patients in acute or intensive care, she said.

“We want everyone as comfortable as can be, so when it comes, their actions are second nature,” she said.

“Having our surge happen later than New Orleans or New York is playing in our favor. It gives us more time to plan and run simulations and gives us a chance to learn about what’s happening in those medical centers.”

The VA also is hiring and needs more workers in Sioux Falls. There are dozens of openings, including for nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, food service workers and housekeepers. To learn more, visit usajobs.gov and search “veterans affairs” and “Sioux Falls.”

“We need people,” said Erin Bultje, public affairs officer for the Sioux Falls VA. “We have fast-track hiring. We’re getting health care professionals hired and on staff in three days.”

Each day, every person coming into the hospital, including staff, is screened for COVID-19 symptoms when entering. Veterans are asked to call in with their symptoms before coming for care.

“If someone calls with more severe symptoms, we encourage them to come in and meet them at the door and safely escort them into the ER,” Simoneau said, adding that the VA does have some rapid COVID-19 tests that can give results in 45 minutes.

“They’re very scarce. We use them for inpatients, so if we’re going to admit, we’ll run the test before we send them up, and we use them for health care workers to ensure we’re not infecting any of the patients.”

Two patients who tested positive were able to be sent home right away, she said.

“And we’ve tested quite a few and been fortunate to have almost all come back negative.”

Planning is made more complex at the VA because of its “fourth mission” around public health, which has been activated. It allows the VA to share resources with other area health systems if the governor requests it and FEMA authorizes it, Simoneau said.

“They are doing that in New York. VAs in New York City are accepting regular citizens,” she said.

“We also could be called up to support the Omaha VA, Iowa City or Minneapolis. They could bring patients here or request to use some of our staff. There are so many plans for different scenarios it’s hard to say how many beds we’re adding because it depends on the scenario.”

Two months into her new lead role, she has high praise for the incident command team at the Sioux Falls VA.

“Our incident command system has been phenomenal. I was in Florida for 12 years. I was in Philadelphia when they had record snow. So I’ve been in a lot of incident command centers, and this one is literally planning for every eventuality,” she said. “They’re planning for everything we can think of.”

Former members of the military may be eligible for VA health care. This includes veterans who served on active duty or in the Guard or Reserve.  If you are interested in learning more about eligibility for VA health care, call 605-336-3230, ext. 4196.

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Sioux Falls VA Medical Center prepares for influx of COVID-19 patients

Hallways are emptier, staff members are cross-training and preparations are being made to add beds at the Sioux Falls VA Medical Center, where veterans with COVID-19 are expected to need care.

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