Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Short-Staffing Forces Some Hospitals To Limit Beds Even With Patient Surge
San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Cases May Have Peaked, But Hospitals Still Face A Torrent Of Patients
This winter’s omicron surge — the most explosive wave yet of the 2-year-old coronavirus pandemic — may be cresting in the Bay Area, but hospitals expect more challenging weeks ahead as the astonishingly high case counts continue to translate into a torrent of patients. Though the highly infectious omicron variant is causing less severe illness than earlier strains of the coronavirus, this winter has in some ways been just as difficult for hospitals, health care staff and administrators say. They may have fewer very sick patients, but most hospitals are about as busy this year as last as they deal with staffing shortages caused by COVID on top of profound physical and emotional fatigue among workers. (Allday, 1/23)
The Wall Street Journal: In Hospital Strained By Omicron, Weary Nurses Treat Too Many Patients
Houston Methodist Hospital, inundated with patients from the pandemic’s latest surge, had too few nurses one recent morning to open all its beds. Six nurses had been recruited away by staffing firms days earlier. Dozens more were out sick with Covid-19. Those still left were working extra hours to help the hospital accommodate a daily crush of new, very sick patients. “I’m not running the same size hospital today that I did two months ago,” said Roberta Schwartz, head of incident command at the hospital. (Evans, 1/23)
Los Angeles Times: In South L.A., Busy Hospital Deals With More Widespread But Less Severe COVID Infections
A man with painfully swollen legs from congestive heart failure lies on a gurney outside the emergency room, looking up at a leaden sky that is threatening rain. A wife helps her husband into a triage tent, after his dialysis center refused to admit him after a positive coronavirus test. Arriving at the emergency department of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, people are treated in field tents, hallways, cubicles, former administrative offices and ambulance bays. Many wait in the open air with coughs and sore throats to get tested for the coronavirus. Others come for all sorts of chronic diseases that perpetually curse South Los Angeles. (Mozingo, 1/23)
The New York Times: A Shrinking Band Of Southern Nurses, Neck-Deep In Another Covid Wave
Bobbie Anne Sison was heading to the hospital just before dawn when she got a panicked call from one of her best nurses saying she couldn’t come to work because her car had overheated on Route 63. Ms. Sison, a nurse manager at Pascagoula Hospital, slammed on the brakes, made a U-turn and raced to fetch her. “We have staff members dropping like flies from Covid so there was no way I was going to leave her on the side of the road,” Ms. Sison said a few hours later as she walked the corridors of her 350-bed hospital, which has been steadily filling with Covid patients after a monthslong lull. (Jacobs, 1/23)
Chicago Tribune: Latest COVID-19 Surge Has Made It Difficult To Get Basic Medical Care
After a year of undergoing treatments to fight off an aggressive form of breast cancer, Heather Mingay was scheduled to have her ovaries removed this month, in an attempt to help prevent the cancer from returning. Mingay, 37, of Northbrook, told her manager at work she’d be gone. She secured extra child care for her three kids. She mentally prepared. And then her doctor’s office called her about 2½ weeks ago to cancel the surgery. The call came as hospitals across the state suspended elective procedures to help keep beds open, amid a nasty COVID-19 surge that’s sent many people to hospitals, especially the unvaccinated. (Schencker, 1/22)
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Reuters: Rich Countries' Access To Foreign Nurses During Omicron Raises Ethical Concerns, Group Says
The Omicron-fuelled wave of COVID-19 infections has led wealthy countries to intensify their recruitment of nurses from poorer parts of the world, worsening dire staffing shortages in overstretched workforces there, the International Council of Nurses said. ... "We have absolutely seen an increase in international recruitment to places like the UK, Germany, Canada and the United States," said Howard Catton, CEO of the Geneva-based group that represents 27 million nurses and 130 national organisations. (1/23)
AP: Governor Delays New Nursing Home Staffing Requirements
Rhode Island is delaying a new law that would fine nursing homes for failing to comply with minimum staffing requirements. Gov. Dan McKee signed an executive order Friday that delays the law from going into effect until at least Feb. 14, the Providence Journal reported. The law was supposed to go into effect Jan. 1, but nursing homes warned they were be unable to meet the requirements amid ongoing staffing shortages. (1/23)
