Nurses make their way to Yuma to assist with influx of patients

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - On Wednesday, YRMC confirmed more than 50 nurses will arrive at the hospital within the next couple of days. This, as the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), deploys nearly 600 out-of-state nurses to in-state hospitals.

“So it's gonna do a lot of things, one is going to really help us expand so that we can maintain patients here in Yuma, we can run our capacity of our ICU to full capacity,” said the Chief of Nursing for YRMC, Deb Aders.

Hospitals in need of critical staffing are finally receiving resources from the ADHS, free of charge for up to six weeks.

“Specifically, those that we kind of need for our organization so we did make a request, based upon bed capacity based upon our supplies and based upon staff. And then we did receive notification today, were going to be receiving ICU nurses as well as med surgical nurses,” Aders explained.

The state’s top doctor released this statement Wednesday:

Last week, we told you about the 23 medical professionals provided by health and human services. They came to assist YRMC with the surge of COVID-19 patients. However, those teams' time in Yuma is through.

[RELATED: YRMC receives helping hand from the Country’s top health department]

Fortunately, help from the V.A. is on the way.

“The Veteran's Administration is also going to be sending some nurses within the next couple of days. I'm not sure how long of a timeframe, they will be here but we're very excited to actually have them here as well," she said.

YRMC has already transferred 150 patients to other hospitals, both in-state and out.

Aders says, with the significant help, things will be much different. It will make life much easier for patients and their families.

“We won't have to transfer patients outside of Yuma so that's going to be the one of the biggest things. We have been one of probably the biggest facilities to transferring patients out,” she said.

“So this is really going to be helpful, so we can transfer less patients out of yuma so families can stay,” Aders added.

As of today, the hospital currently has 140 COVID-19 patients, 27 of whom are in the ICU.