Category Archives: Intensive Care (ICU)

Coronavirus Doesn’t Recognize Man-Made Borders

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Access, Access & Quality of Healthcare, Chronic Care Management, Chronic Conditions, Chronic Diseases, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Economic Crisis, Economic Stimulus, Economy Reopening, Essential Health Benefits, Essential Workers, Health Policy, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Bed Shortage, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Intensive Care (ICU), Mortality, Pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Public Health, Public Safety, Quarantine, Social Determinants of Health, Social Distancing, Supply Chain • Leave a comment

Coronavirus Doesn’t Recognize Man-Made Borders

Coronavirus Doesn't Recognize Man-Made Borders - California Health ...

From El Centro Regional Medical Center, the largest hospital in California’s Imperial County, it takes just 30 minutes to drive to Mexicali, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California. The international boundary that separates Mexicali from Imperial County is a bridge between nations. Every day, thousands of people cross that border for work or school. An estimated 275,000 US citizens and green card holders live in Baja California. El Centro Regional Medical Center has 60 employees who reside in Mexicali and commute across the border, CEO Adolphe Edward told Julie Small of KQED.

Now these inextricably linked places have become two of the most concerning COVID-19 hot spots in the US and Mexico. While Imperial County is one of California’s most sparsely populated counties, it has the state’s highest per capita infection rate — 836 per 100,000, according to the California Department of Public Health. This rate is more than four times greater than Los Angeles County’s, which is second-highest on that list. Imperial County has 4,800 confirmed positive cases and 64 deaths, and its southern neighbor Mexicali has 4,245 infections and 717 deaths.

The COVID-19 crisis on the border is straining the local health care system. El Centro Regional Medical Center has 161 beds, including 20 in its intensive care unit (ICU). About half of all its inpatients have COVID-19, Gustavo Solis reported in the Los Angeles Times, and the facility no longer has any available ventilators.

When Mexicali’s hospitals reached capacity in late May, administrators alerted El Centro that they would be diverting American patients to the medical center. “They said, ‘Hey, our hospitals are full, you’re about to get the surge,’” Judy Cruz, director of El Centro’s emergency department, recounted to Rebecca Plevin in the Palm Springs Desert Sun.

By the first week of June, El Centro was so overburdened that “a patient was being transferred from the hospital in El Centro every two to three hours, compared to 17 in an entire month before the COVID-19 pandemic,” Miriam Jordan reported in the New York Times.

Border Hospitals Filled to Capacity

Since April, hospitals in neighboring San Diego and Riverside Counties have been accepting patient transfers to alleviate the caseload at the lone hospital in El Centro, but the health emergency has escalated and now those counties need relief. “We froze all transfers from Imperial County [on June 9] just to make sure that we have enough room if we do have more cases here in San Diego County,” Chris Van Gorder, CEO of Scripps Health, told Paul Sisson in the San Diego Union-Tribune. El Centro patients are now being airlifted as far as San Francisco and Sacramento.

According to the US Census Bureau, nearly 85% of Imperial County residents are Latino, and statewide, Latinos bear a disproportionate burden of COVID-19. The California Department of Public Health reports that Latinos make up 39% of California’s population but 57% of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Nonessential travel between the US and Mexico has been restricted since March 21, with the measure recently extended until July 21. However, jobs in Southern California, such as in agricultural fields and packing houses, require regular movement between the two countries. “I’m always afraid that people are imagining this rush on the border,” Andrea Bowers, a spokesperson for the Imperial County Public Health Department, told Small. “It’s just folks living their everyday life.”

These jobs, some of which are considered essential because of their role in the food supply chain, may have contributed to the COVID-19 crisis on the border. Agricultural workers often lack access to adequate personal protective equipment and are unable to practice physical distancing. They also are exposed to air pollution, pesticides, heat, and more — long-term exposures that can cause the underlying health conditions that raise the risk of death for COVID-19 patients.

Comite Civico del Valle, a nonprofit focused on environmental health and civic engagement in Imperial Valley, set up 40 air pollution monitors throughout the county and found that levels of tiny, dangerous particulates violated federal limits, Solis reported.

“I can tell you there’s hypertension, there’s poor air pollution, there’s cancers, there’s asthma, there’s diabetes, there’s countless things people here are exposed to,” David Olmedo, an environmental health activist with Comite Civico del Valle, told Solis.

Fear of New Surges

With summer socializing in full swing, health experts worry that COVID-19 spikes will follow. Imperial County saw surges after Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, probably because of lapsed physical distancing and mask use at social events.

Latinos in California are adhering to recommended public health behaviors to slow the spread of the virus. CHCF’s recent COVID-19 tracking poll with Ipsos asked Californians about their compliance with recommended behaviors. Eighty-four percent of Californians, including 87% of Latinos, say they routinely wear a mask in public spaces all or most of the time. Seventy-two percent of Californians, including 73% of Latinos, say they avoid unnecessary trips out of the home most or all of the time, and 90% of Californians, including 91% of Latinos, say they stay at least six feet away from others in public spaces all or most of the time.

A Push to Reopen Anyway

Most counties in California have met the state’s readiness criteria for entering the “Expanded Stage 2” phase of reopening. Imperial County has not. In the past two weeks, more than 20% of all COVID-19 tests in the county came back positive, the Sacramento Bee reported. The state requires counties to have a seven-day testing positivity rate of no more than 8% to enter Expanded Stage 2.

Still, the Imperial County Board of Supervisors is pushing Governor Gavin Newsom for local control over its reopening timetable. The county has a high poverty rate — 24% compared with the statewide average of 13% — and “bills are stacking up,” Luis Pancarte, chairman of the board, said on a recent press call.

He worries that because neighboring areas like Riverside and San Diego have opened some businesses with physical distancing measures in place, Imperial County residents will travel to patronize restaurants and stores. This movement could increase transmission of the new coronavirus, just as reopening Imperial County too soon could as well.

More than 1,350 residents have signed a petition asking Newsom to ignore the Board of Supervisor’s request, Solis reported. The residents called on the supervisors to focus instead on getting the infection rate down and expanding economic relief for workers and businesses.

Cruz, who has been working around the clock to handle the county’s COVID-19 crisis, agrees with the petitioners. The surges after Mother’s Day and Memorial Day made her “really concerned about unlocking and letting people go back to normal,” she told Plevin. “It’s going to be just like those little gatherings that happened [on holidays], but on a bigger scale.”

 

 

 

 

A 70-year-old man was hospitalized with COVID-19 for 62 days. Then he received a $1.1 million hospital bill, including over $80,000 for using a ventilator.

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Coronavirus, Health Insurance Coverage Adequacy, Health Policy, Health System, High Deductible Health Plans, High Prices, Intensive Care (ICU), Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Out of Pocket Expenses, Pandemic, Preexisting Conditions, Rev Cycle Management, Revenue Cycle, Survival Guilt, Ventilators • Leave a comment

https://www.yahoo.com/news/70-old-man-hospitalized-covid-170112895.html

Man, 70, hospitalized with COVID-19 for 62 days gets $1.1 million ...

  • A man in Washington state who spent more than two months in the hospital and more than a month in the Intensive Care Unit with COVID-19 received a 181-page itemized bill that totals more than $1.1 million, The Seattle Times reported.
  • Michael Flor, 70, will likely foot little of the bill due to his being insured through Medicare, according to the report.
  • “I feel guilty about surviving,” Flor told The Seattle Times. “There’s a sense of ‘why me?’ Why did I deserve all this? Looking at the incredible cost of it all definitely adds to that survivor’s guilt.”

A 70-year-old man in Seattle, Washington, was hit with a $1.1 million 181-page long hospital bill following his more than two-month stay in a local hospital while he was treated for — and nearly died from — COVID-19. 

“I opened it and said ‘holy (expletive)!’ ” the patient, Michael Flor, who received the $1,122,501.04 bill told The Seattle Times.

He added: “I feel guilty about surviving. There’s a sense of ‘why me?’ Why did I deserve all this? Looking at the incredible cost of it all definitely adds to that survivor’s guilt.”

According to the report, Flor will not have to pay for the majority of the charges because he has Medicare, which will foot the cost of most if not all of his COVID-19 treatment. The 70-year-old spent 62 days in the Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah, Washington, 42 days of which he spent isolated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). 

Of the more than one month he spent in a sealed-off room in the ICU, Flor spent 29 days on a ventilator. According to the Seattle Times, a nurse on one occasion even helped him call his loved ones to say his final goodbyes, as he believed he was close to death from the virus.

While in the ICU, Flor was billed $9,736 each day; more than $80,000 of the bill is made up of charges incurred from his use of a ventilator, which cost $2,835 per day, according to the report. A two-day span of his stay in the hospital when his organs, including his kidneys, lungs, and heart began to fail, cost $100,000, according to the report.  

In total, there are approximately 3,000 itemized charges on Flor’s bill — about 50 charges for each day of his hospital stay, according to The Seattle Times. Flor will have to pay for little of the charges — including his Medicare Advantage policy’s $6,000 out-of-pocket charges — due to $100 billion set aside by Congress to help hospitals and insurance companies offset the costs of COVID-19.

Flor is recovering in his home in West Seattle, according to the report.

 

 

 

 

Dubai’s Super-Ambulance Is a Mini Hospital-on-Wheels with an Operating Room and X-Ray Unit

Posted on by • Posted in Ambulance, Ambulatory Care Services, Coronavirus, Diagnostic Testing, Emergency Care, Intensive Care (ICU), Medical Evacuation, Operating Room, Primary Care • Leave a comment

https://www.techthatmatters.com/dubais-super-ambulance-is-a-mini-hospital-on-wheels-with-an-operating-room-and-x-ray-unit/?fbclid=IwAR0MQS2H3VZyMPozU_MqVSZ2BeYDKOelYqvWi6MHBLiMguiN9eIe7cjoF0U

Dubai’s Super-Ambulance Is a Mini Hospital-on-Wheels with an Operating Room and X-Ray Unit

Dubai is proud to introduce its impressive fleet of the “world’s largest ambulances,” or “Mercedes-Benz large-capacity ambulances” which were created to give rapid medical assistance in the event of major emergencies with large numbers of causalities. These new emergency vehicles offer a fully-equipped, mobile clinic with an intensive-care unit and an operating room.

Equipped with an X-ray unit and ultrasonic equipment for further evaluation, each super ambulance bus carries 12,000 liters of oxygen, which ensures a dependable supply for up to three days. With the press of a button, oxygen masks fall from special holders, and the oxygen flow to each mask can be individually controlled.

They’re also equipped with an ECG and an InSpectra shock monitor, which monitors the oxygen saturation in tissue-matter and warns doctors of the onset of shock minutes before it occurs. This unit can also detect and monitor internal bleeding. If an emergency caesarian birth is needed, essential obstetrical instruments, including an incubator, are on board.

 

 

 

 

Banner Health combats growing spike of COVID-19 cases in Arizona after stay-at-home order lifted

Posted on by • Posted in Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Deferred Healthcare, Elective Procedures, Elective Surgery, Health System, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Intensive Care (ICU), Mortality, Pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Public Health, Public Safety, Quarantine, Social Distancing, Supply Chain • Leave a comment

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/hospitals/banner-health-combats-growing-spike-covid-19-cases-arizona-after-stay-at-home-order?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWlRnNU16RmxOemM1WXpWaSIsInQiOiJ0TFFnRkR2OUVoQjY5SXArbjU0ZXVmcjJaMFdNWXZ6cXBHOGQxVzZ1dkxhMHJVK0t3dmRtcUVicFIrVDdlMUJPY3doWlQzeVN0VVZxakdnUFBHY2w2a0VVQ0s2WFI1anhqR2xvSFBtMDZZcVlaYVwvK2xlRWdcL01uQmFRVTA0VGtMIn0%3D&mrkid=959610

Banner Health combats growing spike of COVID-19 cases in Arizona ...

Banner Health warned of a major spike of COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks in Arizona as the state opened back up and eased social distancing guidelines.

Arizona’s COVID-19 hospitalizations are rapidly increasing and raising potential capacity concerns, the system said.

“As of June 4, there were 1,234 hospitalized COVID-19 patients,” the system said in a statement. “About 50% of those patients are hospitalized in Banner Health facilities.”

Banner officials said its ICUs have gotten very busy, and the system has been transferring patients and resources to avoid putting stress on one particular hospital. Banner Health operates 28 hospitals across six states, including several hospitals in Arizona. The health system’s update comes as other hospital systems are eyeing a potential resurgence of COVID-19 cases as states reopen their economies after months of stay-at-home orders.

“If these trends continue, Banner will soon need to exercise surge planning and flex up to 125% bed capacity,” the system warned.

The number of Banner Health patients in Arizona on a ventilator has also increased over the past few weeks, from 41 on May 22 to nearly 120 on June 3.

The system also attributed the increase in COVID-19 cases to a relaxation of the state’s stay-at-home order, which expired May 15.

The cases started to spike two weeks after the end of the order, which is the likely incubation period for the virus.

Banner emphasized that the public needs to continue certain behaviors like wearing a mask in public and social distancing in order to ensure capacity isn’t overwhelmed.

Hospitals not only have to worry about the prospects of a second surge of the virus in the fall but also a wave of pent-up demand for healthcare services put off due to the pandemic.

Banner Health, like all health systems, canceled or postponed elective procedures at the onset of the pandemic back in March. But health systems are taking small steps to resume elective procedures.

Banner Health has also taken steps to preserve its personal protective equipment (PPE), which has been in short supply across the healthcare industry throughout the pandemic. Banner was one of 15 healthcare systems to buy a minority stake in PPE domestic manufacturer Prestige Ameritech in the hopes of shoring up a supply chain that is traditionally reliant on overseas manufacturers.

 

 

 

 

 

ICUs become a ‘delirium factory’ for Covid-19 patients

Posted on by • Posted in Autopsy, Brain Care, Coronavirus, Delirium, Diagnostic MRI, Diagnostic Testing, Immune System Response, Infection Control, Infectious Virus, Intensive Care (ICU), Pandemic, Physician, Silent Hypoxia, Stroke • Leave a comment

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/brain-coronavirus-delirium-kaiser/index.html

ICUs Become A 'Delirium Factory' For COVID-19 Patients | Health ...

Doctors are fighting not only to save lives from Covid-19, but also to protect patients’ brains.

Although Covid-19 is best known for damaging the lungs, it also increases the risk of life-threatening brain injuries — from mental confusion to hallucinations, seizures, coma, stroke and paralysis. The virus may invade the brain, and it can starve the brain of oxygen by damaging the lungs. To fight the infection, the immune system sometimes overreacts, battering the brain and other organs it normally protects.
Yet the pandemic has severely limited the ability of doctors and nurses to prevent and treat neurological complications. The severity of the disease and the heightened risk of infection have forced medical teams to abandon many of the practices that help them protect patients from delirium, a common side effect of mechanical ventilators and intensive care.
And while Covid-19 increases the risk of strokes, the pandemic has made it harder to diagnose them.
When doctors suspect a stroke, they usually order a brain MRI — a sophisticated type of scan. But many patients hospitalized with Covid-19 are too sick or unstable to be wheeled across the hospital to a scanner, said Dr. Kevin Sheth, a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the Yale School of Medicine.
Many doctors also hesitate to request MRIs for fear that patients will contaminate the scanner and infect other patients and staff members.
“Our hands are much more tied right now than before the pandemic,” said Dr. Sherry Chou, an associate professor of critical care medicine, neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
In many cases, doctors can’t even examine patients’ reflexes and coordination because patients are so heavily sedated.
“We may not know if they’ve had a stroke,” Sheth said.
A study from Wuhan, China — where the first Covid-19 cases were detected — found 36% of patients had neurological symptoms, including headaches, changes in consciousness, strokes and lack of muscle coordination.
“Our hands are much more tied right now than before the pandemic,” said Dr. Sherry Chou, an associate professor of critical care medicine, neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
In many cases, doctors can’t even examine patients’ reflexes and coordination because patients are so heavily sedated.
“We may not know if they’ve had a stroke,” Sheth said.
A smaller, French study observed such symptoms in 84% of patients, many of which persisted after people left the hospital.
Some hospitals are trying to get around these problems by using new technology to monitor and image the brain.
New York’s Northwell Health is using a mobile MRI machine for Covid patients, said Dr. Richard Temes, the health system’s director of neurocritical care. The scanner uses a low-field magnet, so it can be wheeled into hospital rooms and take pictures of the brain while patients are in bed.
Staffers at Northwell were also concerned about the infection risk from performing EEGs, tests that measure the brain’s electrical activity and help diagnose seizures, Temes said. Typically, technicians spend 30 to 40 minutes in close contact with patients in order to place electrodes around their skulls.
“Right now, we actually don’t know enough to say definitely how Covid-19 affects the brain and nervous system,” said Chou, who is leading an international study of neurological effects of the virus. “Until we can answer some of the most fundamental questions, it would be too early to speculate on treatments.”
To reduce the risk of infection, Northwell is using a headband covered in electrodes, which can be placed on patients in just a couple of minutes, he said.

The brain under attack

Answering those questions is complicated by the limited data from patient autopsies, said Lena Al-Harthi, a professor and the chair of the microbial pathogens and immunity department at Rush Medical College in Chicago.
But many neuropathologists are unwilling or unable to perform brain autopsies, Al-Harthi said.
That’s because performing autopsies on patients who died of Covid-19 carries special risks, such as the aerosolization of the virus during brain removal. Pathologists need specialized facilities and equipment to conduct an autopsy safely.
Some of the best-known symptoms of Covid-19 might be caused by the virus invading the brain, said Dr. Robert Stevens, an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University.
Authors of a recent study from Germany found the novel coronavirus in patients’ brains.
Research shows that the coronavirus may enter a cell through a molecular gateway known as the ACE-2 receptor. These receptors are found not only in the lung, but also other organs, including many parts of the brain.
In a recent study, Japanese researchers reported finding the novel coronavirus in the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.
Some of the most surprising symptoms of Covid-19 ― the loss of the senses of smell and taste ― remain incompletely understood, but may be related to the brain, Stevens said.
A study from Europe published in May found that 87% of patients with mild or moderate Covid-19 lost their sense of smell. Patients’ loss of smell couldn’t be explained by inflammation or nasal congestion, the researchers said. Stevens said it’s possible that the coronavirus interacts with nerve pathways from the nose to the brain, potentially affecting systems involved with processing scent.
A new study in JAMA provides additional evidence that the coronavirus invades the brain. Italian researchers found abnormalities in an MRI of the brain of a Covid-19 patient who lost her sense of smell.
Many coronavirus patients also develop “silent hypoxia,” in which they are unaware that their oxygen levels have plummeted dangerously low, Stevens added.
When hypoxia occurs, regulatory centers in the brain stem — which control respiration — signal to the diaphragm and the muscles of the chest wall to work harder and faster to get more oxygen into the body and force out more carbon dioxide, Stevens said. The lack of this response in some patients with Covid-19 could indicate the brain stem is impaired.
Scientists suspect the virus is infecting the brain stem, preventing it from sending these signals, Temes said.

Collateral damage

Well-intentioned efforts to save lives can also cause serious complications.
Many doctors put patients who are on mechanical ventilators into a deep sleep to prevent them from pulling out their breathing tubes, which would kill them, said Dr. Pratik Pandharipande, chief of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.
Both the disease itself and the use of sedatives can cause hallucinations, delirium and memory problems, said Dr. Jaspal Singh, a pulmonologist and critical care specialist at Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Many sedated patients experience terrifying hallucinations, which may return in recovery as nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Research shows 70% to 75% of patients on ventilators traditionally develop delirium. Delirious patients often “don’t realize they’re in the hospital,” Singh said. “They don’t recognize their family.”
In the French study in the New England Journal of Medicine, one-third of discharged Covid-19 patients suffered from “dysexecutive syndrome,” characterized by inattention, disorientation or poorly organized movements in response to commands.
Research shows that patients who develop delirium — which can be an early sign of brain injury — are more likely to die than others. Those who survive often endure lengthy hospitalizations and are more likely to develop a long-term disability.
Under normal circumstances, hospitals would invite family members into the ICU to reassure patients and keep them grounded, said Dr. Carla Sevin, director of the ICU Recovery Center, also at Vanderbilt.
Simply allowing a family member to hold a patient’s hand can help, according to Dr. Lee Fleisher, chair of an American Society of Anesthesiologists committee on brain health. Nurses normally spend considerable time each day orienting patients by talking to them, reminding them where they are and why they’re in the hospital.
“You can decrease the need for some of these drugs just by talking to patients and providing light touch and comfort,” Fleisher said.
These and certain innovative practices — such as helping patients to move around and get off a ventilator as soon as possible — can reduce the rate of delirium to 50%.
Hospitals have banned visitors, however, to avoid spreading the virus. That leaves Covid-19 patients to suffer alone, even though it’s well known that isolation increases the risk of delirium, Fleisher said.
Although many hospitals offer patients tablets or smartphones to allow them to videoconference with family, these devices provide limited comfort and companionship.
Doctors are also positioning patients with Covid-19 on their stomachs, rather than their backs, because a prone position seems to help clear the lungs and let patients breathe more comfortably.
But a prone position also can be uncomfortable, so that patients need more medication, Pandharipande said.
All of these factors make coronavirus patients extremely vulnerable to delirium. In a recent article in Critical Care, researchers said the intensive care unit has become a “delirium factory.”
“The way we’re having to care for patients right now is probably contributing to more mortality and bad outcomes than the virus itself,” said Dr. Sharon Inouye, a geriatrician at Harvard Medical School and Hebrew SeniorLife, a long-term care facility in Boston. “A lot of the things we’d like to do are just very difficult.”

COVID-19 impact on hospitals worse than previously estimated

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Coronavirus | MSF

Factors such as how many patients would need ICU treatment, average length of stay and fatality risk are straining hospital resources.

When it became evident that the COVID-19 pandemic would spread across the U.S., lawmakers, scientists and healthcare leaders sought to predict what the financial and operational impact on hospitals would be. In those early days, policymakers relied on data from China, where the pandemic originated.

Now, with the benefit of time, the early predictions seriously underestimated the coronavirus’ impacts. University of California Berkeley and Kaiser Permanente researchers have determined that certain factors — such as how many patients would need treatment in intensive care units, average length of stay and fatality risk — are much worse than previously anticipated, and put a much greater strain on hospital resources.

WHAT’S THE IMPACT

Looking primarily at California and Washington, data showed the incidents of COVID-19-related hospital ICU admissions totaled between 15.6 and 23.3 patients per 100,000 in northern and southern California, respectively, and 14.7 per 100,000 in Washington. This incidence increased with age, hitting 74 per 100,000 people in northern California, 90.4 per 100,000 in southern California, and 46.7 per 100,000 in Washington for those ages 80 and older. These numbers peaked in late March and early April.

Those numbers are greater than the initial forecast, especially when factoring in the virus itself. Modeling estimates based on Chinese data suggested that about 30% of coronavirus patients would require ICU care, but in the U.S., the probability of ICU admissions was 40.7%. Male patients are more likely to be admitted to the ICU than females, and also are more likely to die.

Length of stay was also higher than had been predicted. By April 9, the median length of stay was 9.3 days for survivors and 12.7 days for non-survivors. Among patients receiving intensive care, the median stay was 10.5 days, although some patients stayed in the ICU for roughly a month.

Long durations of hospital stay, in particular among non-survivors, indicates the potential for substantial healthcare burden associated with the management of patients with severe COVID-19 — including the need for ventilators, personal protective equipment including N95 masks, more ICU beds and the cancellation of elective surgeries.

The considerable length of stay among COVID patients suggests that unmitigated transmission of the virus could threaten hospital capacity as it has in hotspots such as New York and Italy. Social distancing measures have acted as a stop-gap in reducing transmission and protecting health systems, but the authors said hospitals would do well to ensure capacity in the coming months in a manner that’s responsive to changes in social distancing measures.

THE LARGER TREND

These challenges have placed a financial burden on hospitals that can’t be overstated. In fact, a Kaufman Hall report looking at April hospital financial performance showed that steep volume and revenue declines drove margin performance so low that it broke records.

Despite $50 billion in funding allocated through the CARES Act, operating EBITDA margins fell to -19%. They fell 174%, or 2,791 basis points, compared to the same period last year, and 118% compared to March. This shows a steady and dramatic decline, as EBITDA margins were as high as 6.5% in April.

 

 

We Work on the Front Lines of COVID-19. Here’s What Hospitals Should Do

Posted on by • Posted in Antibodies, Clinical Testing, Communication, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Discharge Planning, Emergency Preparedness, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Infection Control, Infectious Virus, Intensive Care (ICU), Oxygen, Pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Quarantine, Rehabilitation Care, Telemedicine, Ventilators • Leave a comment

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/86185?xid=fb_o&trw=no&fbclid=IwAR3iM5LMZj3BxWisk3puZ2T3bOCeBaDS_xCRoTrnVaZYfj4-DZPmUfr01cw

We Work on the Front Lines of COVID-19. Here's What Hospitals ...

A game plan from ground zero.

It’s only a matter of time before all of us are directly affected by COVID-19. Proper preparation is the only way to ensure high-quality patient care and staff well-being in this challenging time. Having collectively spent time caring for patients at two different tertiary care facilities in New York on the medical floors and intensive care units, common themes are emerging that represent opportunities for hospitals in other parts of the country to start taking action before COVID-19 patients start filling up beds en masse.

Staffing

It takes a LOT of people to care for a COVID-19 onslaught; mapping out different staffing scenarios in the event you have 40 or 400 COVID patients is imperative. Staffing needs for COVID patients are higher than normal because of the patients’ complex medical needs — many require ICU level nursing and respiratory therapists — and because both clinical and non-clinical staff will inevitably become sick and need to be taken out of work. Staff should be screened for symptoms and high-risk contacts; those who are symptomatic should be proactively encouraged to stay home instead of showing up to work not feeling well and putting other care team members and patients at risk. This requires back-up staffing plans to fill in when your people become sick. Shutting down non-urgent and elective departments provides staffing redundancy to pull from when needed. All employees should be given advance notice about staffing plans so that potential role changes are clear.

Testing

Robust testing processes for both patients and your healthcare workforce are critical for success. Hospitals should be taking this time to obtain in-house rapid testing kits to avoid unnecessary patient isolation and conserve personal protective equipment (PPE) while waiting for test results.

Healthcare workers are understandably scared about contracting COVID-19 themselves and giving it to their family members. We recommend all staff members be tested for active infection so that those who are infected can be proactively quarantined.

Forward-thinking institutions should be prioritizing antibody testing for healthcare workers. While this testing is still in its infancy, it is quite likely that those with strong antibodies to COVID-19 possess some degree of immunity. Therefore, if you can identify which doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, and janitorial staff have already developed an immune response to COVID-19, these staff members can take priority staffing infected units with the goal of reducing the number of new infections in healthcare workers and limiting exposure to those who have yet to contract the virus.

Communication

Each institution’s COVID-19 protocols and policies change rapidly as we learn more about the virus. How you communicate these ever-changing procedures with staff is critical. Most hospitals rely on daily email updates that are text-heavy; however, overwhelmed inboxes and less time with devices while wearing PPE limits the success of email as a sole communication channel.

Communication through graphics takes on new importance — signage noting changes in hospital geography, large pictures of donning and doffing instructions, phone numbers to call with equipment shortages, and clear instructions to staff about testing protocols, isolation, and removing patients from isolation need to be conveniently placed where staff can access information in real time without consulting their electronic devices. High-yield locations for just-in-time visual communication include outside patient rooms, nursing stations, break rooms, and elevators, so that the target information reaches its busy, hard-working audience successfully and repeatedly, minimizing confusion and augmenting clarity.

Limiting the Need to Enter the Room

Given ongoing PPE shortages, particularly around single-use gowns and N95 masks, minimizing the number of instances that staff, particularly nurses, need to enter the room is critical. This requires an adjustment from normal patient care. We recommend extension tubing to bring IV poles and medications outside the room. Tablets such as iPads can permit video calls with patients to check on non-urgent items. Centralized monitoring of oxygen saturations for all admitted patients can minimize the frequency of supplemental oxygen adjustment.

Similarly, given the increased risk of COVID-19 in diabetic patients, continuous blood glucose monitoring can minimize the need for frequent manual fingerstick measurements for patients receiving supplemental insulin.

Discharge Planning

Discharging patients to home or rehabilitation facilities presents novel challenges. A home discharge requires education, equipment, and follow-up. Education on home monitoring of vitals signs like oxygen saturation and blood pressure with instructions on critical values that should prompt patients to return to the hospital can expedite discharge and open hospital beds for other sick patients. Both patients and family members must also be educated on quarantine procedures to limit household transmission.

Many patients will have temporary oxygen requirements and we have seen home oxygen shortages in our areas. Coordinating a strategy with your outpatient clinicians, home oxygen suppliers, and insurance companies can facilitate getting patients home sooner on home oxygen and freeing up beds for sicker patients. Further, many patients are eager to go home earlier since hospital visitation limitations mean they’re sitting in bed alone away from family and the more a hospital can do to safely discharge patients home with appropriate supplies and follow-up will be beneficial to both patients and the hospital.

Hospitals must also be prepared to integrate these patients into their existing telehealth infrastructure, which has become the mainstay of ambulatory medicine in lieu of traditional office visits. For many patients, this will be a new way of accessing care. Prior to discharge, hospital staff should ensure patients have downloaded the necessary apps with login information and feel comfortable they will be able to follow up with their physician using technology following discharge.

There is a huge opportunity for hospitals that have not been caring for large numbers of COVID-19 patients to prepare ahead of time in a manner that optimizes patient care and minimizes risks to staff. Those of us on the early front lines have learned many of these lessons the hard way. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure — we encourage all healthcare systems to take action before the storm comes.

 

 

 

 

In worst-case scenario, COVID-19 coronavirus could cost the U.S. billions in medical expenses

Posted on by • Posted in Cash, Cash Reserves, Cash-Flow Improvements, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Economic Crisis, Elective Procedures, Elective Surgery, Health Policy, Health System, Herd Immunity, Hospital, Hospital Bed Shortage, Hospital Industry, Intensive Care (ICU), Net Income, Operating Expenses, Operating Income, Operating Margin, Operating Performance, Operating Revenue, Pandemic, Ventilators • Leave a comment

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In worst-case scenario, COVID-19 coronavirus could cost the U.S. ...

If 20% of the US population were to become infected with COVID-19, it would result in an average of $163.4 billion in direct medical costs.

One of the major concerns about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has been the burden that cases will place on the healthcare system. A new study published April 23 in the journal Health Affairs found that the spread of the virus could cost hundreds of billions of dollars in direct medical expenses alone and require resources such as hospital beds and ventilators that may exceed what is currently available.

The findings demonstrate how these costs and resources can be cut substantially if the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus can be reduced to different degrees.

The study was led by the Public Health Informatics, Computational and Operations Research team at the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, along with the Infectious Disease Clinical Outcomes Research Unit at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Torrance Memorial Medical Center.

The team developed a computer simulation model of the entire U.S. that could then simulate what would happen if different proportions of the population end up getting infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus. In the model, each infected person would develop different symptoms over time and, depending upon the severity of those symptoms, visit clinics, emergency departments or hospitals.

The resources each patient would require – such as healthcare personnel time, medication, hospital beds and ventilators – would then be based on the health status of each patient. The model then tracks the resources involved, the associated costs and the outcomes for each patient.

For example, if 20% of the U.S. population were to become infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus, there would be an average of 11.2 million hospitalizations and 1.6 million ventilators used, costing an average of $163.4 billion in direct medical costs during the course of the infection.

The study shows the factors that could push this amount up to 13.4 million hospitalizations and 2.3 million ventilators used, costing an average of $214.5 billion. If 50% of the U.S. population were to get infected with COVID-19, there would be 27.9 million hospitalizations, 4.1 million ventilators used and 156.2 million hospital bed days accrued, costing an average of $408.8 billion in direct medical costs during the course of the infection.

This increases to 44.6 million hospitalizations, 6.5 million ventilators used and 249.5 million hospital bed days (general ward plus ICU bed days) incurred, costing an average of $654 billion during the course of the infection if 80% of the U.S. population were to get infected. The significant difference in medical costs when various proportions of the population get infected show the value of any strategies that could reduce infections and, conversely, the potential cost of simply letting the virus run its course – the “herd immunity” approach.

Simply put, allowing people to get infected until herd immunity thresholds are met would come at a tremendous cost, and even if social-distancing measures were relaxed and the country “opened up” too early, the healthcare system, as well as the broader economy, would come close to buckling under the weight of the additional costs.

WHAT’S THE IMPACT?

The study shows how costly the coronavirus is compared to other common infectious diseases. For example, a single symptomatic COVID-19 infection costs an average of $3,045 in direct medical costs during the course of the infection alone. This is four times higher than a symptomatic influenza case and 5.5 times higher than a symptomatic pertussis case. Factoring in the costs from longer lasting effects of the infection such as lung damage and other organ damage increased the average cost to $3,994.

Importantly, for a sizable proportion of those who get infected, healthcare costs don’t end when the active infection ends, and costs will likely stay high even after the bulk of the pandemic has passed.

A continuing concern is that the U.S. healthcare system will become overloaded with the surge of COVID-19 coronavirus cases and will subsequently not have enough person-power, ventilators and hospital beds to accommodate the influx of patients. The study shows that even when only 20% of the population gets infected, the current number of available ventilators and ICU beds will not be sufficient.

According to the Society of Critical Care Medicine, there are approximately 96,596 ICU beds and 62,000 full-featured mechanical ventilators in the U.S., substantially lower than what would be needed when only 20% of the population gets infected.

THE LARGER TREND

Data released this week by Kaufman Hall illustrates the extent to which U.S. hospitals are already suffering financially due to the coronavirus.

Looking at earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, hospitals’ operating margins fell more than 100% in March, dropping a full 13 percentage points relative to last year. Compared to most months, that’s a much greater change. Operating EBITDA margin was up just 1% in March 2019, for example, and down 1% in February of this year.

These margins likely fell even further across broader health systems, which often include substantial physician and ambulatory operations outside of the hospital, Kaufman Hall found. Overall, operating margins fell 170% below budget for the month.

 

 

 

U.S. coronavirus updates

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Coronavirus outbreak is level of public pain we haven't seen in ...

 

The pandemic is a long way from over, and its impact on our daily lives, information ecosystem, politics, cities and health care will last even longer.

The big picture: The novel coronavirus has infected more than 939,000 people and killed over 54,000 in the U.S., Johns Hopkins data shows. More than 105,000 Americans have recovered from the virus as of Sunday.

Lockdown measures: Demonstrators gathered in Florida, Texas and Louisiana Saturday to protest stay-at-home orders designed to protect against the spread of COVID-19, following a week of similar rallies across the U.S.

  • 16 states have released formal reopening plans, Vice President Mike Pence said at Thursday’s White House briefing. Several Southern states including South Carolina have already begun reopening their economies.
  • Alaska, Oklahoma and Georgia reopened some non-essential businesses Friday. President Trump said Wednesday he “strongly” disagrees with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on the move.
  • California’s stay-at-home orders and business restrictions will remain in place, Gov. Gavin Newsom made clear at a Wednesday news briefing. But some local authorities reopened beaches in Southern California Saturday.
  • New York recorded its third-straight day of fewer coronavirus deaths Friday. Still, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he’s not willing to reopen the state, citing CDC guidance that states need two weeks of flat or declining numbers.

Catch up quick: Deborah Birx said Sunday that it “bothers” her that the news cycle is still focused on Trump’s comments about disinfectants possibly treating coronavirus, arguing that “we’re missing the bigger pieces” about how Americans can defeat the virus.

  • Anthony Fauci said Saturday the U.S. is testing roughly 1.5 million to 2 million people a week. “We probably should get up to twice that as we get into the next several weeks, and I think we will,” he said.
  • The number of sailors aboard the USS Kidd to test positive for the coronavirus has risen from 18 Friday to 33, the U.S. Navy said Saturday. It’s the second major COVID-19 outbreak on a U.S. naval vessel, after the USS Theodore Roosevelt, where a total of 833 crew members tested positive, per the Navy’s latest statement.
  • The first person known to have the coronavirus when they died was killed by a heart attack “due to COVID-19 infection” on Feb. 6, autopsy results obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday show.
  • Some young coronavirus patients are having severe strokes.
  • Trump tweeted Saturday that White House press conferences are “not worth the time & effort.” As first reported by Axios, Trump plans to pare back his coronavirus briefings.
  • The South is at risk of being devastated by the coronavirus, as states tend to have at-risk populations and weak health care systems.
  • New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday Trump was right to criticize the World Health Organization’s handling of the global outbreak.
  • Trump signed legislation Friday for $484 billion in more aid to small businesses and hospitals.
  • The House voted along party lines on Thursday to establish a select committee to oversee the federal government’s response to the crisis.
  • Unemployment: Another 4.4 million Americans filed last week. More than 26 million jobless filings have been made in five weeks due to the pandemic.

 

 

 

 

U.S. with 1/3 of Confirmed Coronavirus Cases with Less Than 2% of Population Tested

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Denial, Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS), Emergency Preparedness, Health Policy, Infection Control, Infectious Virus, Intensive Care (ICU), Mislead, Misleading, Mortality, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Safety, Social Distancing, Ventilators • Leave a comment

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Coronavirus outbreak affecting some Durham high school students ...

By the numbers: The coronavirus has infected over 2.9 million people and killed over 200,000, Johns Hopkins data shows. More than 829,000 people have recovered from COVID-19. The U.S. has reported the most cases in the world (more than 940,000 from 5.1 million tests), followed by Spain (over 223,000).