News File Photo The MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena emergency entrance appears in this 2021 News file photo.

ALPENA — Overwhelmed and overrun with patients.

That is how MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena President Chuck Sherwin described the current condition at the hospital as it continues to fill up with COVID-19 patients — most of whom are unvaccinated.

Facing a large uptick in COVID-19 infections that require long hospital stays and many people who need intense care for other health conditions, Sherwin said a staffing shortage has only added to the challenges facing the hospital in Alpena.

As of Wednesday, 35 to 40 employees — some because of COVID-19 and others because of other medical issues — are on leave, Sherwin said. The hospital has about 850 employees.

He said MyMichigan utilizes employment agencies to provide traveling nurses and other needed staff members to help fill the gaps in staffing.

Courtesy Graphic This image provided by the Alpena hospital shows the share of coronavirus patients across the MyMichigan Health system who are vaccinated and unvaccinated.

The number of people in the hospital — with or without COVID-19 — has backed up care in all areas of the hospital, from the intensive-care unit to the emergency room.

Sherwin said the hospital is near capacity, and some patients are forced to wait in the emergency room until a bed opens up, either locally or at another hospital. Sherwin said people infected with COVID-19 typically require longer stays in the hospital, creating a logjam in the emergency department.

The state says that, as of Monday, the hospital had 21 people infected with COVID-19 in its care, two of whom were in intensive care. Overall, the hospital was 42% full.

Sherwin said the state counts all beds licensed for use in its occupancy figures, but hospitals determine occupancy rates based on how many beds they can legally and safely fill with the staffing they have.

By that standard, Sherwin said, the hospital in Alpena is 93% full.

“We have had people call us for beds, and we have called people looking for beds,” Sherwin said. “Most hospitals are going through the same thing.”

Sherwin said that, on Friday last week, 17 people waited in the emergency department to be admitted or transferred, which leaves people who need emergency care with long waits to be seen.

Unless more people get vaccinated against the coronavirus, the situation will drag on or get worse, he said.

“These are people who should not be in the ER, because they need a higher level of care,” he said. “We’re running out of places to put them, but we are doing our best.”

Still, Sherwin said, the staff is working diligently to make sure those who need medical treatment receive the best available care.

“I have never in my career seen shortages like this one,” he said. “We have had shortages before, we might be down on nurses or employees in other departments, but not as widespread as it is now.”

The increase in people needing critical care for COVID-19 has stressed the staff and forced the hospital to limit some services. Sherwin said that, this week, non-essential surgerys were suspended, but they are expected to resume next week.

To help reduce the occupancy rate and provide some relief for employees working short-handed and under great stress, Sherwin said people who aren’t vaccinated need to do so. He said most people who are in the hospital, in intensive care, and on ventilators across the MyMichigan Health system are people who have not gotten their shots.

“People are dying who shouldn’t have to die,” he said.

The sickness and death is taking a toll on the employees who work extra shifts to help keep up with the constant steam of the seriously ill.

Sherwin said MyMichigan does its best to keep morale high by offering incentives and premium pay, but, as the pandemic worsens and more lives are lost, the stress begins to wear on people. So much so, he said, that some people are choosing to leave the medical profession all together, which further depletes staffing levels.

“We have had people who have been doing this for almost two years, and they are exhausted and just don’t want to do this anymore,” Sherwin said. “It is hard to keep morale high when you’re being inundated with patients, of which 80% are unvaccinated.”

Health officials say the omicron variant of the virus, which was found in the U.S. early this month, appears to spread even more rapidly than the delta variant of the virus that the world has battled for months.

Some early indications show the new variant, which was labeled a variant of concern by the World Health Organization last month, may not cause as severe of symptoms as prior variants, but is more resistant to current vaccines. If it spreads quickly and many become infected with it over a short time, hospitalizations could rise even higher.

Health experts say having two vaccine shots plus a booster still adds protection from serious disease from omicron and should help limit the number of people who need hospital care.

Sherwin said everyone tries to look for a bright side of the situation, but, right now, there is little light at the end of the tunnel and it may remain that way until people who are reluctant to get vaccinated do so.

“We are trying to see a silver lining and to see an end to this,” Sherwin said. “Right now, we don’t see an end in sight. I believe our staff has done a great job for two years. They have more patients, who are sicker, and they come to work every day despite being exhausted and away from their family. They have all done a great job.”

As of Thursday, 927 Northeast Michiganders were actively infected with the coronavirus. Since the pandemic’s start in spring 2020, 8,776 Northeast Michiganders have been infected and 220 have died, according to local health departments.