The collapse of Covid hospitals in the United States; Making desperate diversions

Many hospitals have capacity It has been exceeded and the beds available to it have run out severe COVID-19 patients In planes, helicopters and ambulances to send them hundreds of kilometers (miles) Served in other countries.

The spread of the delta type of coronavirus, along with low vaccination rates, has pushed hospitals to the limit in many entities, leading to a desperate search for available beds.

The problem is that large urban hospitals were already running out of space Staff as per procedures Unrelated to COVID, such as cancer screening biopsies and hip replacements, at the time the summer recovery began.

This means that they have Number of beds available For patients in small rural hospitals without intensive care wards or for medical centers in places with high rates of coronavirus infection.

Imagine not having your family around for support, or feeling anxious if you have someone who is seriously ill, said Steve Edwards, CEO of CoxHealth, whose Springfield, Missouri hospital treats patients from as far away as Alabama.

Hospitals across the United States had more than 75,000 patients with COVID-19 as of last week, a significant increase from the past few weeks, but still below winter highs. However, Florida, Arkansas, Oregon, Hawaii, Louisiana and Mississippi have already set records for hospitalizations in recent weeks.

In contrast to the winter recovery, this time hospitals were already operating near their maximum capacity as activity in emergency rooms returned to pre-pandemic levels and patients were undergoing treatments that had been postponed.

We see COVID patients, we see car accidents, we see children arriving with seasonal viral infections. “And we’re seeing the usual stuff in the emergency department besides recovery in COVID patients, which is causing a crisis,” said Dr. Mark Rosenberg, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

In Arizona, a phone line COVID . specific He receives desperate calls from hospitals in Wyoming, Arkansas, Texas and California in search of available beds.

They hardly find it.

“We can’t get them out of the hospital,” said Dennis Shelby, CEO of Wilson Medical Center in New Desha, Kansas, a small 15-bed clinic. Hospital officials recently contacted 40 other facilities across the states looking for a bed for a COVID-19 patient before finally finding one more than 24 hours later and about 350 kilometers (220 miles) away. Six of the seven patients have COVID-19, the highest number so far since the pandemic.

In Kansas, COVID-19 patients in small rural hospitals wait an average of nearly 10 hours before being flown to other locations, according to Motient, a company that has a government contract to help handle the transfers.

Dr. Richard Watson, Founder Motient, he said, Kansas patients are being sent to as far away as Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado and Texas. However, most of the time, rural hospitals have to run without assistance.

These are the worst possible days in the emergency room as a caregiver, where you have to take care of a patient and there is absolutely nothing you can do to give him what you know he needs.”

said the delay in Transfers can have serious consequences In patients, especially those who require urgent specialized care, which is often only available in large hospitals.

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