Tribal Advocacy Leads to Hayward Hospital Doubling Their Ventilators

By Joe Morey

News Editor

LCO Secretary-Treasurer, Michelle Beaudin announced last week that she had advocated on behalf of the Tribe for more ventilators at the Hayward Area Memorial Hospital on a call between Tribes and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and I.H.S. The call was to see how the DHHS could support Tribal and I.H.S. hospitals with equipment needs.

“We found that Hayward Hospital only had four ventilators and with the increase in Covid in our county, we explained that our Reservation doesn't have a hospital,” Beaudin said. "Our members utilize Hayward Hospital, so I advocated for more ventilators and through our successful efforts, the hospital doubled their ventilators from four to eight and are in a much better position to deal with any increased hospitalizations from Covid-19." 

The ventilators were delivered to the hospital two weeks ago and passed inspection and testing and are now available for use to support the whole community to which our Tribe is a part of, Beaudin added.