With the situation expected to become much more dire, three out of four U.S. hospitals are already treating confirmed or suspected coronavirus patients, a federal report finds.
warns that different, widely reported problems are feeding off each other in a vicious cycle. Such problems include insufficient tests, slow results, scarcity of protective gear, the shortage of breathing machines for seriously ill patients and burned-out staffs anxious for their own safety.
“Hospitals reported that their most significant challenges centered on testing and caring for patients with known or suspected COVID-19, and keeping staff safe,” the report concluded.In most people, the coronavirus causes mild to moderate symptoms. Others, particularly older people and those with underlying health issues, can develop life-threatening breathing problems. The U.S.
“Health care workers feel like they’re at war right now,” a hospital administrator in New York City told the inspector general’s investigators. They “are seeing people in their 30s, 40s, 50s dying. … This takes a large emotional toll.” The inspector general’s office did not identify survey respondents due to privacy concerns.
Parts of Europe provide a glimpse of what hospitals here are trying to avoid. The AP reported last week that some European nations are throwing togetherand shipping coronavirus patients out of overwhelmed cities via high-speed trains and military jets. In Spain, doctors are having to make agonizing decisions about who gets the best care. In the U.S., two Navy hospital ships have been deployed and field hospitals erected.
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