Dr. Brian Boer, a critical care doctor working in the COVID-19 wing of Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, said his "nightmare scenario" is one in which non-coronavirus patients have to be turned away because the hospital is "bursting at the seams with so much COVID."
"If you ask some of my colleagues and partners, like, we're there," Boer told "Start Here," ABC News' daily news podcast.
"You know, in terms of the trajectory we're on, if it continues like this unabated, like, we're going to end up in the scenario where we're going to have to make really difficult decisions and tell people we can't offer them the things we normally would have," he added. "We're knocking on that door right now."
The number of people being hospitalized for COVID-19 in Nebraska each day has quadrupled over the past month, which Boer said is reflective of what he's seeing in his hospital, where almost half of all intensive care patients are battling the disease.
The issue isn't the lack of ICU beds or ventilators, he said, but rather the lack of adequate staffing.
"We'll create beds or we have ventilators and the space or the equipment -- we don't have the bodies," Boer said. "We don't have the nurses, the respiratory therapist, the residents and advanced practice providers and physicians to care for that person."
Boer said he isn't seeing a lot of spread among health care providers, thanks to personal protective equipment.
"We're more worried about getting sick in the community than we are getting sick at work -- and that's a fact," he said.
This report was featured in the Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, episode of “Start Here,” ABC News’ daily news podcast.
"Start Here" offers a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, the ABC News app or wherever you get your podcasts.
