“We get a few calls every day from rural hospital leaders that are just frantically trying to find a place to send these patients,” said John Henderson, president of the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals. Sprawling Texas has 158 such facilities, more than any other US state…

“I would say every day this week we’ve had a situation that didn’t end well and resulted in a patient’s death,” said Johnson.

Hospital staff feel powerless and overwhelmed by the frantic search for hospital beds somewhere bigger and more equipped.

“We ‘lose’ a nurse essentially every day, because that nurse has to call all of the hospitals in the surrounding areas to prove that we are doing our due diligence to get them elsewhere,” said Renee Poulter, who manages the nursing staff at the Bellville clinic.

“And that takes hours, hours if not the whole day spent phoning every hospital in the great state of Texas to see if anyone will accept your patient,” she added.