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Hospitals Deal with Covid

We have ALL your misinformation, plus some TRUE FACTS and SCIENCE.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#26

Post by bill_g »

sugar magnolia wrote: Sat Jan 08, 2022 2:00 pm
About a month ago, we called an ambulance for my husband because he couldn't breath and was turning blue 2 days before he had 1.5 litres of fluid drained off his lung, waited almost 2 hours and then called back and cancelled. It was just a few days after one of my chemo treatments and I did not have the strength to get him in the car, and was under strict instructions to not go anywhere near a hospital since I was at my lowest point of immunity.

Fuck these people clogging up the hospitals unnecessarily.
Oh goodness. I'm so sorry Sugar - What!?!? I may have missed you telling this elsewhere. Mr. needed his lungs drained, and you had to cancel the ambulance? How did you guys get through this?
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#27

Post by Fiona »

LM K wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:46 am
Fiona wrote: Sat Jan 08, 2022 10:23 pm Indeed. This is where I live and practice. Not looking forward to crisis standards but given the scope of where we are, there isn’t a choice.
I'm sorry you're in the thick of this. What an impossible situation. :bighug:
Thank you for the love.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#28

Post by Volkonski »



Times Record News
@timesrecordnews
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17m
An 11-county Central Texas trauma service region that includes the Austin area has been seeing a shortage in available staffed ICU beds amid Omicron.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#29

Post by Volkonski »

State of Texas: ‘We don’t have enough staff’ – COVID surge strains Texas hospitals

https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/te ... ource=t.co
Texas continues to break records, thanks to the Omicron variant. In the past week, the state’s COVID positivity rate hit record highs. By Thursday, more than 35% of molecular tests taken by Texans were turning up positive.

While positive case counts are no longer the best metric to gauge the pandemic, hospitalizations in the state have also doubled in just 10 days.

Meanwhile, hospitals statewide are experiencing staffing shortages.

:snippity:

“At this point, we have rooms where we could put people, but we don’t have enough staff to to match up, we are pretty close to the point where we wouldn’t have enough rooms either,” Dr. Rodney Young with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Amarillo said Tuesday.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#30

Post by Volkonski »

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#31

Post by Volkonski »



MSNBC
@MSNBC
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"Right now in the United States, there's about 138k people hospitalized with Covid-19. The all time high ... is 142k."

@SamBrockNBC
reports from Miami, where Baptist Health has had to shut down urgent care centers in order to handle staffing issues from a rise in Covid cases.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#32

Post by sugar magnolia »

bill_g wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 7:24 am
sugar magnolia wrote: Sat Jan 08, 2022 2:00 pm
About a month ago, we called an ambulance for my husband because he couldn't breath and was turning blue 2 days before he had 1.5 litres of fluid drained off his lung, waited almost 2 hours and then called back and cancelled. It was just a few days after one of my chemo treatments and I did not have the strength to get him in the car, and was under strict instructions to not go anywhere near a hospital since I was at my lowest point of immunity.

Fuck these people clogging up the hospitals unnecessarily.
Oh goodness. I'm so sorry Sugar - What!?!? I may have missed you telling this elsewhere. Mr. needed his lungs drained, and you had to cancel the ambulance? How did you guys get through this?
They have no idea where the fluid came from or what it is because the labs are so backed up it has not been tested yet. Whatever is causing it is still there though because it's apparently building up again. He has more tests Thursday but as of right now they're mumbling about congestive heart failure. He had a triple bypass about 10 years ago and the cardiologist mentioned surgery and stents, but his quack PCP thinks they may be able to control it with meds, at least for a while. We're praying for the meds because he's pretty much spending 24/7 tending to me right now and there's no way I can do anything for him if he has surgery. Hopefully, we'll know more after the tests this week. We're probably looking at the end of March at the very earliest before I have the energy to do anything much more than roll over in the bed, and that's assuming they can get the side effects and thyroid issues under control.

We just cancelled the ambulance once he could breathe and he went back to bed and saw his quack PCP the next morning. He had already been 3 times complaining of the breathing issues but the quack didn't do an X-ray until his legs swelled up and turned purple. Then all of a sudden it became a crisis and he got referred to a pulmonologist (5 week wait for an appointment) and a cardiologist (3 days for an appointment) to figure it out.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#33

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

I hope your Mr. can get diagnosed soon, sugar. Hubby went through those symptoms immediately after his bypass, but never had the leg swelling. He got an ablation which remedied it. If it is congestive heart failure, the proper drugs are NECESSARY.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#34

Post by Volkonski »



“As an E.R. Doctor, I Fear Health Care Collapse More Than Omicron”

Writing in the NYT, @Craig_A_Spencer says we have the treatments to defang omicron — but the health system is running out of people to fight it and other ills.

https://t.co/hygmp6eOx2
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#35

Post by Volkonski »

Long Island Jewish Hospital



LIJ Valley Stream has had to move some patients to other hospitals to help ease the emergency department backlog. https://t.co/697EhXbSGc
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#36

Post by Suranis »

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/icu-doct ... 42ab7cba10
I'm An ICU Doctor In Rural Ohio. This Is The Horror I Face Every Day Due To COVID-19.

“Coming back tomorrow?” I heard one bedside ICU nurse ask another. “Absolutely not. I’m off. You couldn’t pay me enough to get me here tomorrow.”
Jason Chertoff, M.D., M.P.H.
By
Jason Chertoff, M.D., M.P.H.
01/08/2022 07:30am EST | Updated January 8, 2022
"The morale and resolve of healthcare workers are at all-time lows."

I work mainly in the intensive care unit in a moderate-sized community hospital in a rural section of Ohio. Like many pulmonary and critical care physicians across the country, I continue to be immersed and consumed by COVID-19 and all of its destruction, with no clear end in sight.

When I became board certified in my specialties just three years ago, COVID-19 did not exist. But now my new norm and second home is a 24-bed ICU filled with COVID-19 patients on ventilators, medically paralyzed and flipped on their stomachs, with many more patients waiting to enter. Sometimes in the midst of the vital sign alarms blaring, overhead code blue alerts, and grueling end-of-life family meetings, I ponder how much longer this pace can be sustained.

As we embark on our third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is difficult to name all of the health care resources that have neared depletion, with ventilators, personal protective equipment, emergency room and intensive care unit beds, physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and other essential health care workers being just a few. Gazing at my colleagues’ somber faces and dispirited demeanor, it is clear that an underappreciated health care resource deserving mention, which is now quickly dwindling, is morale.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#37

Post by W. Kevin Vicklund »

Just after New Years, Dr. Vicklund spoke to one of her dearest friends from grade/high school. She is a medical doctor (DO)* working at a hospital in Chicago. She's very close to burnout. Dr. Vicklund tried to convince her to take a week staycation to recharge. Not sure how that worked out, but they had a good two-three hour chat. Hopefully it helped.

*We housed her when she did her family physician rotation with my doctor
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#38

Post by bill_g »

sugar magnolia wrote: Mon Jan 10, 2022 11:04 am They have no idea where the fluid came from or what it is because the labs are so backed up it has not been tested yet. Whatever is causing it is still there though because it's apparently building up again. He has more tests Thursday but as of right now they're mumbling about congestive heart failure. He had a triple bypass about 10 years ago and the cardiologist mentioned surgery and stents, but his quack PCP thinks they may be able to control it with meds, at least for a while. We're praying for the meds because he's pretty much spending 24/7 tending to me right now and there's no way I can do anything for him if he has surgery. Hopefully, we'll know more after the tests this week. We're probably looking at the end of March at the very earliest before I have the energy to do anything much more than roll over in the bed, and that's assuming they can get the side effects and thyroid issues under control.

We just cancelled the ambulance once he could breathe and he went back to bed and saw his quack PCP the next morning. He had already been 3 times complaining of the breathing issues but the quack didn't do an X-ray until his legs swelled up and turned purple. Then all of a sudden it became a crisis and he got referred to a pulmonologist (5 week wait for an appointment) and a cardiologist (3 days for an appointment) to figure it out.
Ugh. When it rains, it pours. Big hugs for you and hubby.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#39

Post by p0rtia »

:yeahthat:
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#40

Post by Volkonski »

Nearly one quarter of US hospitals reporting staff shortages

https://local12.com/news/nation-world/n ... -shortages
The report comes as the U.S. hits a record number of hospitalizations. The latest update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows 141,000 people are in the hospital with COVID-19.

There are several states ramping up efforts to keep them running during the surge.

Virginia's governor issued a 30-day State of Emergency aimed at increasing capacity and staffing. It allows healthcare workers to care for more patients at once and allows out-of-state providers to work in Virginia.

Maryland's governor issued a similar declaration last week and in New Jersey, the governor could declare another public health emergency in the next 24 hours, as the current order expires Tuesday. The number of ICU patients there has doubled since Christmas.

In Chicago, multiple hospitals say the wait time at the emergency room is more than four hours. The governor of Illinois has asked hospitals to delay or postpone elective and non-emergency surgeries during the surge.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#41

Post by raison de arizona »

Banner Health is the largest employer in AZ with over 50k employees, they run about 30 hospitals.
Phoenix-based Banner Health has had to temporarily close some of its #urgentcare locations due to staffing shortages, chief clinical officer Dr. Marjorie Bessel says
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#42

Post by Foggy »

This will pass, but I don't know whether the world has gone insane.
Out from under. :thumbsup:
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#43

Post by sugar magnolia »

JACKSON, Miss. (Jan 11, 2022) — The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) is issuing a statewide order making participation in Mississippi COVID System of Care Plan mandatory for all licensed hospitals effective at noon today. The order will continue until January 23, 2022, unless revoked prior to that time.
Due to the current wave of COVID-19 and limited ICU availability, and the inability of ill patients in rural areas to access care, MSDH is activating this Limited System of Care Plan. All Mississippi hospitals must participate in the plan to allow the most critically ill patients to be transferred for care while not overburdening any hospital.
This approach is more focused than the prior Order because it only includes situations such as:
Heart attacks
Strokes
Immediate neurosurgical intervention (such as a severe car accident)
Transplant patients with complications
Ventilated patients at a hospital without an ICU, respiratory therapy or a ventilator)
Mississippi MED-COM will direct patients to available beds, and when no beds are available, to hospital destinations on a rotating basis based on geography and resource availability.
https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/23 ... SI361IUpig
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#44

Post by Volkonski »

United Regional is the big hospital and trauma center for much of Texoma.

United Regional temporarily adds COVID test site, expands hours

https://www.newschannel6now.com/2022/01 ... ntent=kauz
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - United Regional announced Wednesday that it would temporarily expand testing hours and open an additional testing site.

Starting on Jan. 12, drive-through testing hours at the Barnett Rd. Medical Building tent changed to:

Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Meanwhile, drive-through testing will be available at the J.S. Bridwell Ag Center at 111 N. Burnett St. starting on Tuesday, Jan. 18 during the following hours:

Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The hospital noted that patients would not be evaluated by a healthcare provider while at testing sites, and recommended scheduling an appointment due to United Regional receiving an extremely high volume of calls.

The hospital concluded its statement by saying, “We appreciate your patience and understanding as we go through yet another COVID surge.”
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#45

Post by raison de arizona »

Well, this seems like a step backward. Also, isn't that the beginning of the time Omicron deaths in places like NY will begin peaking? Huh. Conspiracy theory? Maybe.
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IMHO, in-hospital #COVID19 deaths is “a surveillance indicator for U.S. health care system stress, capacity, capability, and/or patient safety”

But what do I know? I’m just a health data scientist that’s developed national healthcare quality metrics
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#46

Post by p0rtia »

Read that a bit ago and wondered the same thing.

I don't like it.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#47

Post by RTH10260 »

Just a guess that covid related deaths for the staticians meant pure covid, not something else with covid as a side dish, and it's skewing their numbers.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#48

Post by Volkonski »

Hospitals postponing thousands of surgeries amid onslaught of COVID and other patients

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/14/ ... nt=event25
The state’s largest health care system, Mass General Brigham, starting Monday, will be slashing thousands of surgeries it performs each week as it strains to stay ahead of the tsunami of patients pouring into its hospitals.

And on Thursday, UMass Memorial Medical Center, the largest health system in Central Massachusetts, suspended all surgeries and medical procedures for conditions not considered life-threatening until further notice.

The situation is so bad that it’s forcing hospital administrators to make heartbreaking choices to limit all but the most urgent surgeries and procedures. This extends even to some cancer surgeries, forcing doctors to weigh which tumors are growing faster and which slow enough to postpone care.

Dr. Ron Walls, Mass General Brigham’s chief operating officer, said hospitals are now fielding calls from patients “begging” to be put back on the list for surgery.

“This is really, really hard for patients,” he said.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#49

Post by LM K »

Psychiatric hospitalization and covid ...
As the super contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads, hospitals are seeing a growing trend: Patients admitted for other ailments are also testing positive for Covid-19. Doctors say it may mean more people have asymptomatic or undiagnosed disease than the current data show.

Across NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s 10 campuses, just less than half of patients are admitted with Covid, meaning they were hospitalized for a non-Covid related issue but were also tested and found to be carrying the virus. Statewide the figure is 43 percent, according to state data.
:snippity:

Hospitals across the country are also seeing a greater proportion of these so-called incidental Covid cases amid the omicron surge.
:snippity:

Testing positive for Covid can also delay care for other conditions, doctors say.

“There a lot of patients who have some sort of chronic disease, whether it’s mental health issues, depression, addiction, they’re on dialysis, and so they rely on services that are outside the hospital to take care of them,” said Dr. Mucio Kit Delgado, an ER doctor at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center emergency department in Philadelphia. But if they test positive, "the amount of places becomes very limited to where they can go. And so then, they just get stuck in your emergency department."

Dr. Ali Raja, an emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, said he has witnessed the same thing, specifically patients who need psychiatric care but can't go to the psychiatric unit because they are positive for Covid.

"We have had kids wait four weeks for pediatric psychiatric beds," he said, noting some of those children have to wait in the emergency department.
Trying to treat patients whom are covid positive AND in a psychiatric emergency is nearly impossible. Psychiatric beds were in severe shortage before the pandemic. Now patients can't be admitted because they're covid positive. This leaves critical care units in chaos. My sister is a cardiac critical care nurse. She treats patients in psychiatric crisis all the time. These patients aren't stable enough to go to the psychiatric unit, and much too psychiatrically unstable to be on the cardiac unit. Those patients cause utter chaos.

(Lori had a homeless cardiac patient whom also had schizophrenia. He absolutely needed to be in the psychiatric unit but wasn't stable enough to go to that unit. He was extremely violent (flashbacks of trauma). There were times when staff couldn't restrain him so they had to leave the room for their own safety until he calmed down. All they could do was hope for the best when he was in his room in such crisis. The nurses were heartbroken as they tried to treat him. When he wasn't in crisis, he was a really nice guy. They knew his violence wasn't personal ... he was fighting demons, not them. [Almost all with mental illness are less violent than those without mental illness.])

Had he been a patient during the pandemic, he'd probably be dead for lack of staff to care for him. He'd be collateral damage of the pandemic.

Shit has really hit the fan for psychiatric patients in Oregon.

Oregon State Hospital is Oregon's primary psychiatric facility. It has 600 psychiatric inpatient beds. It's the facility for Oregon's most severely mentally ill patients, for incarcerated inmates too ill to remain at their jail/prison and for all legally insane patients. It's also where patients are sent when local hospital psychiatric units are at capacity.

The hospital has closed to new admissions after quarantining 3 units. This is having serious ramifications in our legal system.

OSH was already critically understaffed before covid. Now so many staff are covid positive that they can't accept new patients.

In summer 2021, the National Guard was deployed to help at OSH ... twice.
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Re: Hospitals Deal with Covid

#50

Post by LM K »

RTH10260 wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 3:12 am Just a guess that covid related deaths for the staticians meant pure covid, not something else with covid as a side dish, and it's skewing their numbers.
Which is really complicated. Many patients admitted for non-covid health issues test positive immediately after admission. In Florida, the stat is over 50%. In New York the stat is 43%.

I just wrote about that here.
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