COVID Numbers Way Down but Rural Hospital Still Struggling

(Webster City, IA) — The latest figures show only 67 people were hospitalized Wednesday in Iowa for treatment of COVID-19, down significantly from the peak in January of near one-thousand patients. The CDC says death rates, too, are slowing dramatically. Lisa Ridge, CEO of Van Diest Medical Center in Webster City, says even after two years, the coronavirus is still making a critical impact, due in large part to being a small hospital in a rural area. Since early 2020, many people have chosen to retire or quit the health care profession and the hospital has a long list of open positions, making a tough situation even more difficult for those who remain. To combat those problems, Ridge says they’ve cross-trained staff, invested in new technologies, and gotten “creative” with supplies and their supply chain as a whole.