Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Overstressed Hospitals Face Shortages Of Workers, Beds And Treatments
The Washington Post: As Coronavirus Soars, Hospitals Hope To Avoid An Agonizing Choice: Who Gets Care And Who Goes Home
The coronavirus pandemic is rolling across America like a great crimson wave. In Illinois, the rate of new infections is so high that a group of doctors sent an urgent letter to the governor. “We’re having to almost decide who gets treatment and who doesn’t,” said one of its leaders. In Ohio, the rapid spread of the virus has pushed the state health-care system to the brink. Expressing deep concern, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) vowed to enforce his statewide mask mandate and issued new restrictions on social gatherings. “We can’t surrender to this virus. We can’t let it run wild,” he said. (Fears, Achenbach and Martin, 11/11)
CNN: Some Hospitals Are Running Out Of Health Care Workers. Here's What Could Happen Next
Imagine going to a hospital so overwhelmed, doctors and nurses with Covid-19 are allowed to keep working. Or having a heart attack and getting rushed to a hospital, only to learn there's not enough emergency care for you. These scenarios have already turned into reality. The US has more people hospitalized with Covid-19 this week than at any other point in the pandemic. (Yan, 11/11)
The Wall Street Journal: Record Covid-19 Hospitalizations Strain System Again
Hospitals across the nation face an even bigger capacity problem from the resurgent spread of Covid-19 than they did during the virus’s earlier surges this year, pandemic preparedness experts said, as the number of U.S. hospitalizations hit a new high Wednesday. The number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients reached 65,368, according to the Covid Tracking Project, passing the record set Tuesday for the highest number of hospitalizations since April. A spring surge in the Northeast pushed hospitalizations near 60,000. Hospitalizations hit a nearly identical peak again in late July, as the pandemic’s grip spread across the South and West. (Evans, 11/11)
NBC News: As Covid Hospitalizations Soar, States Struggle To Find Enough Beds And Staff
In El Paso, Texas, a convention center has been turned into a Covid-19 field hospital and refrigerated trailers have been trucked in to store the dead because there’s no more room in the morgues. In Massachusetts, Michigan and several other states, hospitals are struggling to find enough beds for the influx of coronavirus patients and canceling elective surgeries so doctors and nurses can concentrate on Covid-19 cases. (Siemaszko, 11/11)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: COVID-19 Cases Put Wisconsin Hospitals Close To 'Tipping Point'
Wisconsin is approaching a point where its hospitals may not be able to save everyone who needs saving as the coronavirus continues to surge and overwhelm the state's health care system, health officials warned on Wednesday. "We're very close to a tipping point," Ryan Westergaard, state Department of Health Services chief medical officer, said during an event hosted by Wisconsin Health News. "This could get much worse quickly and that tipping point is when we stop being able to save everyone who gets severely ill." (Beck, 11/11)
AP: Idaho's Coronavirus Surge Overwhelms Primary Care Clinics
Idaho’s unchecked spread of the coronavirus has become so overwhelming in some areas that medical care providers are struggling to even answer all the phone calls from would-be patients, a health care executive said Wednesday. Dr. David Peterman, the CEO of Primary Health Medical Group, said the company’s 20 clinics normally get about 1,800 phone calls a day. But with the pandemic raging in southwestern Idaho, the clinics are now getting 3,000 calls a day. (Boone, 11/12)
Detroit Free Press: COVID-19 Is Raging In Western Michigan As Hospitals Are Near Capacity
The coronavirus is raging in western Michigan, the CEO of Spectrum Health said Wednesday, announcing its hospitals are nearing capacity as the number of people hospitalized with the virus has tripled in the last 20 days, affecting all age groups." We are facing some of the most daunting and demanding challenges since this pandemic began," said Spectrum Health President and CEO Tina Freese Decker. "COVID-19 is surging across our state and we are heading in the wrong direction." Of those who are hospitalized in the region, 1 in 10 are dying, she said. (Jordan Shamus, 11/11)
Albuquerque Journal: NM Sets New Record For Virus Cases, Hospitalizations
New Mexico soared past another daily record Wednesday, setting a new high in the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations. The state reported 481 virus patients in its hospitals, a 13% jump in just a day and the most ever recorded in the pandemic. The spike in hospitalizations comes as medical leaders warn they may have to treat patients in MASH-style units if the trend continues and invoke other crisis standards of care. (McKay, 11/11)
KHN: Listen: COVID Stresses Rural Hospitals Already ‘Teetering On The Brink’
When KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal heard a sample of the voices that correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble brought back from her reporting trip to rural Kansas, Rosenthal said she knew the story needed to be told through audio. That’s the genesis for “No Mercy,” season one of the podcast “Where It Hurts.” The series documents the fallout after Mercy Hospital closed in Fort Scott, Kansas. (11/12)
