Eight nurses at Haskell County Community Hospital, the only hospital in the rural Oklahoma town of Stigler now double as the cleaning crew, according to an article on the Pro Public website.
They stabilize patients with life-threatening conditions, mop floors and scrub toilets, according to the article.
The nurses, along with an office manager and a part-time maintenance worker, are the only remaining employees at the Haskell, which two years ago had a staff of 68.
And for the past several months, the hospital’s remaining employees have performed housekeeping duties and avoided taking time off when they’ve been sick.
The facility barely has enough employees to comply with state and federal laws, which require the emergency room to be staffed with at least two nurses and an on-call physician.
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