意见:医院空床应该恢复non-COVID-19护理病人
美国的医院进行代际COVID-19斗争。这一次,战时比喻似乎是适当的。与此同时,我们不应该造成伤亡许多脆弱的美国人患有其他疾病。现实是COVID-19没有加护病房和病床在大多数的国家,然而,有许多非COVID-19病人现在被迫等待救命的手术。
在准备大量COVID-19病人,医院在全国取消了“选择”。Many Americans have interpreted that to mean procedures that can be delayed without consequence to the patient, but this is incorrect. "Elective" is simply the opposite of "emergency." In other words, "elective" procedures are those that are scheduled in advance. These include life-saving organ transplants and cancer surgeries. Recently, some healthcare systems have clarified their guidelines so that procedures are delayed only if patients will suffer no lasting harm from the postponement. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has provided recommendations to help providers triage care by considering both the patient's condition and capacity of the health care system, including whether reasonable alternatives—like telehealth—are feasible. While this is a welcome development, more needs to be done, especially in states where beds are waiting for COVID-19 patients who may never arrive.
例如,在我们的家乡加州COVID-19 10 ICU患者占用少于两床,COVID-19-related使用率的增长,值得庆幸的是,似乎是平缓。
加州的照片甚至阳光的时候医院床。低于百分之五是被COVID-19病人。
可以肯定的是,纽约仍然是关键的局势,COVID-19整个ICU患者消费超过能力的状态。纽约州州长库莫所指出的,国家卫生系统运行竭尽全力,以确保这些患者可以获得救生ICU治疗。
然而,在加州和其他州的喜欢它,我们需要一个恢复的策略医院护理non-COVID-19病人安全,尽快。挑战之一是缺乏个人防护装备(PPE)在医院。治疗non-COVID-19患者同时感染的PPE短缺风险的存在加速了流行病和压倒性的医院能力一些州仍然享受。物理隔离是最安全、最可靠的策略,以解决这个问题。
隔离COVID-19患者是有意义的公共卫生风险,但不能以牺牲其他的护理。限制访问的当前战略COVID-19病人是有意义的是有些不知所措热点喜欢纽约。然而,纽约之外,COVID-19病人不消耗大部分医院甚至加护病房的床上。更有意义创造一个适当大小的战略储备COVID-19 ICU和综合医院床位,以及适当的个人防护用品供应这些医院,而不是关闭绝大多数non-COVID-19医疗程序。
