Anson health director pleads for money to hire nurses

WADESBORO — Health Director Fred Thompson issued an urgent plea to the Anson County Board of Commissioners for higher pay for the Health Department’s nursing staff to make up for recent departures and maintain competitiveness with other health agencies.

The Delta variant has put increased strain on healthcare providers over recent months. Thompson said that as of Sept. 1 in Anson County, there had been 3,111 total cases since March 2020 and there were 204 active cases. Compared to Sept. 7, there were 235 new cases of the virus in that time period, which is a “pandemic high” for Anson County, according to Thompson.

Additionally, Thompson highlighted the importance of the vaccines by citing the Charlotte Observer’s reporting as of last week which showed that 857 of the 900 hospitalized in the Charlotte area were unvaccinated, which makes for 92% of the total hospitalized population. In Anson, about 10-15% of new cases are “breakthrough cases,” meaning vaccinated people who test positive, which Thompson said is about consistent with the state average. But Thompson added that the breakthrough cases are typically in patients that have some other condition that is suppressing their immune system which causes them to test positive.

The state average in the percent of tests that come back positive is about 14%, according to Thompson, and the goal is to get down to 5% or less. Over the two weeks prior to Sept. 7, 15-16% of the people tested were coming back positive.

In response to these increase numbers, which are causing a “significant increase in the demand for both vaccination and testing,” Thompson said, the Anson County Health Department has started reducing their routine clinical services to focus on meeting the demand for vaccines and COVID tests.

“I don’t like to do it but management of the pandemic, understandably, has to take priority over routine services,” he said.

The Health Department has now gone to vaccinating two days per week instead of one, and will have one full day with nothing but COVID-19 testing. Vaccines are being offered for free to walk-ins at the Health Department from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 110 East Ashe St. in Wadesboro. There is no appointment needed. Patients must wear a mask and bring their photo ID and insurance card.

The recent surge has further exposed the staffing issues faced by the Health Department. There are 19 total staff members including Thompson. He said they had two front desk receptionists, but one resigned the week before which reduced the Health Department’s registration staff by 50%. On July 31, the Health Department’s family planning nurse retired, reducing the nursing staff by 25%.

Thompson isn’t concerned about filling the front desk job, but he’s very concerned about being able to hire another nurse the pandemic has caused a nursing shortage that has led to an explosion in the salaries of nurses who are still working. He explained that the entry level salary for nurses has risen, so that if you do bite the bullet and pay a high wage to the new nurse, that nurse will be significantly better compensated than those who have worked there longer. What this requires the employer to do is raise the salaries of all of the nursing staff, Thompson argued.

The Health Department is currently looking for two nurses — one to replace the one that has just retired, one to fill an extra position added in the new budget — and a third when another current nurse retires in February. They interviewed three nurses last week and all of them said they weren’t willing to work for what the Health Department is willing to pay, according to Thompson. Fixing this would require a change in Anson County’s hiring policy which, the director said emphatically to the Board of Commissioners, currently sets the salary of nurses below the minimum range for that position.

“You’re not going to be able to recruit a nurse and expect him or her to come to work for you below the minimum of the range for that position — it’s simply irrational,” Thompson said, adding that it might not be possible to fix while the county has an interim county manager. “We need to get this on our radar collectively because I can’t recruit quality clinical staff below the minimum of the range of the position I’m trying to recruit them for.”

Thompson advocated for the county allowing the health director to have the autonomy to bring in a position like a registered nurse at the mid-point of the range for that position.

The commissioners were in agreement that something needed the change with the hiring practices of the Health Department in light of the new challenges presented by the pandemic. Chairman James Woodburn directed the Interim County Manager Ray Allen to work on this issue, and other commissioners offered to form a committee to address the issue.

“Hopefully we can come up with something that is equitable to help you hire nurses as well as what we can do for those that are already here, I don’t know if that’s possible or not,” Woodburn said. “We’re in a crisis situation … I know it’s not going to be easily done but we’ve got to start working on it now and I say working on it right away.”

Job postings have been put on social media. To contact the Anson County Health Department, call them at 704-994-3229. Or to speak with Dr. Thompson, call his office at 706-994-3327 or email him at fthompson@ansoncountync.gov.