The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the US has passed the 100,000 threshold as the pandemic’s second wave continues to grow. This number marks a new record-high since the beginning of the pandemic, surpassing the 60,000 hospitalized patients recorded in the Covid Tracking Project.
Healthcare System on Edge
In an interview with CNBC, the chief healthcare officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges Dr. Janis Orlowski said that she has never seen any disease infecting so many people at such a fast rate.
Dr. Orlowski added that they “never saw this number with HIV or any of the other new diseases that we’ve had” and the shame of it is “it’s a number that we could have impacted and we didn’t.”
This week, the AAMC urged all health systems to get ready for deploying “Crisis Standards of Care.” This protocol is reserved for the most extreme situations; such as the 9/11 terror attack
According to Orlowski, crisis care means providing “the best care possible to the largest number of people with the resources available,” and deciding whom to use scarce resources on, which is a very difficult decision to make.
Dr. Orlowski also added that some hospitals in Texas, Utah, Nebraska, and North Dakota already work at the crisis care point, and if the situation keeps worsening, “most hospitals are going to be there in the next two weeks.”
Meanwhile, ER physician and Director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health Dr. Megan Ranney, said that the hospital system in Rhode Island is running out of beds and staff, “so to add an extra 100,000 patients on top of our existing burden of disease and injury is almost unfathomable.”
Leave a Reply
Thank you for your response.
Please verify that you are not a robot.