THE VALUED VOICE

WHA has been working with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) to address workforce shortage issues in Wisconsin hospitals related to COVID-19. DHS has established a process to access additional workforce resources and prepared a fact sheet outlining that process. The fact sheet emphasizes that prior to requesting emergency response resources, providers first should attempt to address needs locally, through existing staffing contracts and supply chains.
 
Once local options have been exhausted, a hospital may contact its regional Healthcare Emergency Readiness Coalition Coordinator (HERC), who will work with the local health officer to make the request via WebEOC to DHS on behalf of the hospital. Upon approval, DHS will make a WEAVR request. If there is no response or an insufficient response from WEAVR, DHS can escalate the request to FEMA. The fact sheet includes the criteria that FEMA will expect to be met before FEMA will provide workforce resources. DHS has emphasized that hospitals should provide all of the information included under “FEMA Requests for Medical Resources” when making the initial request to expedite the process.
 
WHA held webinar on October 6 explaining how to use the process. A recording of this webinar can be found here.