Why Exposure to the Virus Won't Cure the Healthcare Problem-Covid-19

 It has been nearly a year since Covid-19 the deadly corona virus arrived on US shores, with the first case identified in Seattle on January 15, 2020 from a man who had visited Wuhan. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020) Unfortunately, conflicting messages by the current presidential administration, as well as state, and local governments gave much of the public a false sense of security about their COVID-19 risk. North Dakota for example, was one of those states which remained open for business and their hospitals have since suffered a crush of patients. (Sarah Mervosh, 2020) Currently it is facing a critical shortage of hospital beds, which impacts all patients, not just Covid-19.

People who don’t think they will become ill or die from Covid-19 are missing the point, if the entire health system crashes because of an onslaught of pandemic patients, other non-COVID patients will not be able to obtain timely service. Further, there are cases, especially with cancer patients, where their treatments were disrupted and they died. Three patient groups which have experienced potentially life-threatening disruptions in care are: lymphoma patients who need CAR-T therapy, restrictions on certain coronary procedures due to Covid-19 myocarditis patient exposure, and lack of support systems for cancer patients who may be rushed into procedures to beat the Covid onslaught. (Rosenblaum, 2020)

The general public is now aware of the toll the pandemic has taken on healthcare professionals who have been taken ill by Covid-19 and died. If there aren’t enough doctors or nurses for the patients, people will die.  It takes years for healthcare professionals to become trained so losing them is a huge problem for providing adequate patient care even in non-pandemic times. The US has critical shortages in nursing due to several factors; the aging baby boomer population, a third of all current nurses are over the age of fifty and will soon be retiring, and an inadequate pipeline to produce enough nurses. (Haddad, Annamaraju, & Toney-Butler., 2020) Nurses provide the lions share of patient care in hospital settings.  There are critical shortages of nursing staff in many states, especially Texas, where ICU nurses must take care of six patients versus the normal two, this must not persist. The American Hospital Association declared in November that Texas, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois have critical shortages in staffing and even equipment, like the ultra-cold freezers to store the Covid-19 vaccine. (Goldhill, 2020)

The entire west coast from California to Washington has the most severe shortages of hospital beds in the country. This is not a state issue, it is a national issue, because the healthcare system impacts residents, visitors, and commerce. One could even argue that this is a national security issue, because prolonged absences of skilled professionals and other essential workers impacts everything from the food supply to public utilities. Though it is unconscionable the pandemic was not treated with a proven science-based protection protocol and was subject to the electoral whims of a few, this is an opportunity for America to look at its healthcare system and make critical changes for the future. The current, profit-motive system, especially in large hospitals is not working, as more and more community hospitals fail, and communities go unserved. We should not be financing venture capital funds for giant hospital corporations with our astronomical healthcare costs.

Surely the global Covid-19 Pandemic has made it clear that the nation needs to change the laissez-faire healthcare financing system and start targeting areas of shortages based on patient populations, not just “growth opportunities with the right payor mix.” Because at the end of the day, when your father can’t get timely cancer treatments, you lose your wife to COVID-19, and you are unable to find a hospital bed which is necessary for surgery, the health system is not working for us all. Let’s stop making this a political issue and start working together as a nation to resupply our critical shortages in nursing, primary healthcare, and yes, hospital beds.

This is the healthpolicymaven signing off encouraging you to have a safe and sane New Year’s Day.

Roberta Winter is an independent journalist and healthcare analyst who receives no money from any of the insurance, hospital, pharmaceutical, or medical supply sectors of US healthcare. Opinions expressed here are her own. Winter is the author of a guidebook to the US healthcare system, which was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2013 and is still selling today.

https://www.amazon.com/Unraveling-U-S-Health-Care-Personal/dp/1442222972

Works Cited

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, January 21). First Travel-related Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus Detected in United States. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control.com media releases: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p0121-novel-coronavirus-travel-case.html

Goldhill, O. (2020, November 20). ‘People are going to die’: Hospitals in half the states are facing a massive staffing shortage as Covid-19 surges. Retrieved December 27, 2020, from Statnews.com: https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/19/covid19-hospitals-in-half-the-states-facing-massive-staffing-shortage/

Haddad, L. M., Annamaraju, P., & Toney-Butler., T. J. (2020, December 25). Nursing Shortage. Retrieved from NCBI Resources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/

Rosenblaum, L. (2020, June 11). The Untold Toll-The Pandemic's Affects on Patients Without Covid-19. New England Journal of Medicine. doi:DOI: 10.1056/NEJMms2009984

Sarah Mervosh, D. L. (2020, December 23). Covid-19: Lockdowns Return and North Dakota Issues Mask Mandate as Records Fall. The New York Times. Retrieved December 25, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/11/13/world/covid-19-coronavirus-updates

Winter, R. (2010, September 20). The Brave New World of Accountable Care Organizations. Retrieved from Straight Talk on Healthcare.blogspot.com: https://healthpolicymaven.blogspot.com/2010/09/brave-new-world-of-accountable-care.html