Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Bottleneck Forces Some States To Battle It Out For Ventilators But Others Are Able To Lend A Helping Hand
The Hill: States Battle Each Other For Equipment In Supply Chain Crunch
States across the country are racing to stockpile ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE) and necessary medical supplies as they prepare for brutal surges of coronavirus cases in the coming weeks and months. But a bottleneck in the global supply chain has forced those states to compete with each other, and often with the federal government, for limited supplies. In many states, governors have reached deals with suppliers only to have those suppliers tell them later that they received a better price from another state. (Wilson, 4/7)
CNN: US States Race To Fight The Nearly 400,000 Coronavirus Cases With Long-Awaited Medical Shipments
The United States is quickly approaching 400,000 coronavirus cases, and states grappling with the overwhelming numbers are bringing in medical equipment and medication to battle the virus. The national death toll has reached 12,910, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The nation's hospitals have struggled to treat the virus as rising cases have put increasing pressure on personal protective equipment and ventilators. But deliveries have sought to alleviate the shortages. (Holcombe, 4/8)
Stateline: Competing Hospitals Cooperate To Meet The Crisis
For hospitals, among the nation’s biggest and most competitive businesses, giving up lucrative surgeries to make way for a competitor’s overflow of patients does not come naturally. But as COVID-19 threatens to overwhelm the American health care system, U.S. hospitals are cooperating in unprecedented ways. In addition to postponing elective surgeries and other procedures, they are transferring children from adult hospitals to pediatric hospitals and sharing staff, equipment and supplies. One health care system has gone as far as creating a COVID-19-only hospital. (Ollove and Vestal, 4/8)
The Wall Street Journal: At FEMA, Companies Offer Critical Coronavirus Supplies The Government Can’t Buy
More than 1,000 companies responded to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s call about two weeks ago to provide needed supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic, according to a person familiar with the matter. As of early Monday, only three companies had supplies the agency could actually buy. Many of the offers, for items ranging from protective medical gear to tests and body bags, didn’t work out, according to people familiar with the matter, because some companies have asked for payment up front, something FEMA can’t agree to. Another issue: Some companies have oversold what they can actually get to FEMA. (Levy, 4/7)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: UPS Manages Airlift Of Healthcare Supplies For Feds
UPS launched a two-week operation to run 25 cargo flights carrying masks, gloves, surgical gowns and other equipment for the health care industry under the federal government’s Project Airbridge. The airlift of shipments from China, Malaysia, Honduras and other countries is an initiative of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and companies including health care distributors. (Yamanouchi, 4/7)
The Washington Post: Many Triage Plans Prioritize Pregnant Women, Health Care Workers, Even Politicians Over The Elderly And Disabled
No group in America today is more beloved than health-care workers. People sing to them from balconies, tweet about their heroism and memorialize them in portraits with faces bruised by masks. Recognizing their sacrifices — as well as their essential role — Pennsylvania officials recently adopted new guidelines giving doctors, nurses and others fighting covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, preferential access to scarce ventilators in a shortage. But the idea makes some uncomfortable. (Cha and McGinley, 4/7)
Boston Globe: Who Gets A Ventilator? New Gut-Wrenching State Guidelines Issued On Rationing Equipment
Massachusetts health officials issued guidelines Tuesday to help hospitals make gut-wrenching decisions about how to ration ventilators, should they become overwhelmed with coronavirus patients and run out of critical treatments. The guidance, which is not mandatory, asks hospitals to assign patients a score that gives preference to healthier patients who have a greater chance of surviving their illness, and living longer overall. (Kowalczyk, 4/7)
WBUR: Thinking Through The Unthinkable: How Mass. Hospitals May Decide Who Gets A Ventilator In The COVID-19 Surge
If a hospital has more critically ill patients than it can manage, who gets an intensive care bed and who doesn’t? Who gets a ventilator? The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is out with guidelines that address some of the most challenging questions doctors and nurses will face during the pandemic. (Bebinger, 4/7)
Stat: Ventilators Are Overused For Covid-19 Patients, Doctors Say
Even as hospitals and governors raise the alarm about a shortage of ventilators, some critical care physicians are questioning the widespread use of the breathing machines for Covid-19 patients, saying that large numbers of patients could instead be treated with less intensive respiratory support. If the iconoclasts are right, putting coronavirus patients on ventilators could be of little benefit to many and even harmful to some. (Begley, 4/8)
ABC News: Recovering Coronavirus Patient Talks About ICU Experience: 'I Owe My Life To A Ventilator'
Upon waking up six days after being put on a ventilator due to the novel coronavirus, David Lat says his first conversation with his husband was about the books he’d asked for. He said he was unaware of the “hell” his family had gone through. Lat, a former federal prosecutor and founder of the website Above The Law, says he returned home April 1 after spending 17 days at New York University’s Langone Health fighting the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. As hospitals across the country warn of shortages in these critical devices, Lat said he wouldn’t be alive without one. (Rivas, 4/7)
