After a state-imposed hiring freeze that lasted about five months, Central Virginia Training Center plans to hire a few nurses and assistants in the next several weeks, Director Denise Micheletti said Tuesday.
Another key development will keep CVTC’s acute-care center open, with at least six beds for residents who become ill, some of the center’s managers and a few parents learned Tuesday.
Micheletti said the need for the acute-care beds was demonstrated last week when four residents became ill with flu-like symptoms.
Three of the cases tested positive for the H1N1 virus, commonly called swine flu, said Dr. Balraj Bawa, the center’s physician. The center is awaiting test results on the fourth case, he said.
The illnesses did not appear serious, CVTC officials said, and the Tamiflu medication is effective for treating them.
The H1N1 virus has become widespread, and the Virginia Department of Health no longer tracks the number of cases in each city or county, said Bobby Parker, a department spokesman.
“We know it has circulated throughout Virginia. It’s everywhere, and we know that,” Parker said.
Three swine flu victims have died in Virginia.
Parker said Virginia can expect to face two kinds of flu this year — swine flu and seasonal flu.
Vaccines are being prepared for both varieties, he said, although neither is available yet.
The preventive vaccine for seasonal flu probably will be ready first, Parker said, because the seasonal variety claims about 36,000 lives per year in the United States.
People don’t have a natural immunity to swine flu, Parker said, and it’s still possible it could mutate into a more dangerous virus.
The flu cases and the opportunity to fill some vacant jobs were discussed in the first meeting of CVTC’s Hospital Work Group, a new communications effort at the center, which employs about 1,400 in Madison Heights.
CVTC has 15 vacant positions, which include jobs for certified nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses and registered nurses, Micheletti said.
Current employees will get the first chance to apply for the jobs, before they are advertised to the public, Micheletti said.
Micheletti also reviewed other key issues to assure quality of care as CVTC works through a plan to reduce its number of residents from 442 to about 300 within five years.
CVTC will have a physician on site 24 hours a day, she said, and will continue to have a laboratory that performs diagnostic services.
A registered nurse will oversee case management, and a sitter will accompany any CVTC resident who is taken to a public hospital for treatment of an illness or injury.
And, CVTC will maintain its license to operate acute-care beds, partly because it can bill insurers when it provides acute-care services.
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