Expecting a rush of COVID-19 patients, hospitals prepare their most important resource: health care workers
BY EMMA PLATOFF | The Texas Tribune
At one Manhattan hospital, the new coronavirus has sickened half the intensive care staff. In Italy, it has already killed dozens of doctors.
The viral outbreak has not yet reached that crisis point in Texas. But as the state prepares for a peak that may still be weeks away, hospitals are already grappling with how to deploy and protect their most important resource: their staff.
“The problem, of course, is not just where’s the greatest patient demand, but also the physicians are at significant risk for getting COVID themselves,” said David Fleeger, a colorectal surgeon in Austin and the president of the Texas Medical Association. “That’s a significant impact on the workforce.”
With nonessential medical procedures canceled and patients skipping routine doctors’ visits, many health care providers can be reassigned to the wings of the hospitals that need them most, likely the emergency rooms and intensive care units that will tend to the sickest coronavirus patients. But staffing shortages could prove insurmountable should large numbers of clinicians fall ill with the virus, and the risks are only higher amid a nationwide shortage of the personal protective equipment needed to keep them from contracting it. A nurse at HCA Houston Healthcare Northwest is fighting for his life after caring for patients without a proper mask, the Houston Chronicle reported this week.
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