Do you fear that, with the eventual third outbreak of COVID-19 cases, very soon there won't be any new patient admitted into the hospital on a permanent basis?

In our hospital we have partitioning plans to make a covid icu and a non Covid icu so everybody will be taken care of

Eventual third outbreak? What does that mean?

No, I don’t fear it in an overall sense. Large hospitals have covid ICU’s and non-covid. In my state the hospitals have been coordinating to direct patients to other hospitals when necessary. Some places around the US are more at risk though, so it depends a little where exactly you live. I actually don’t have a lot of ICU space where I live considering we have a very high risk population. I can look up open beds online any time I am curious. I am assuming they can open a new unit if they need to. I do trust my governor would move equipment if necessary and even help move staff and wave any laws about needing credentials at a particular hospital if need be.

Hospitals in Florida (I assume other states also) have to cancel elective procedures in hospitals if they reach a certain occupancy, I don’t remember what it is, to be able to expand for covid quickly if there is a sharp increase in patients, but that does not preclude other emergencies and hospitalizations being tended to.

One thing I felt was done incorrectly, was some hospitals or states were categorizing elective in such an extreme way I disagreed with it. Putting off cancer surgeries even. I don’t think that would be done again, except in a very extreme circumstance.

I really worry about hospital workers. They are being overstressed, overworked, and put at risk in places where there are large caseloads. It literally makes my chest ache when I think about it. At the same time, since hospitals can’t be at full capacity nurses and other hospitals workers are having their hours cut.

What seems apparent to me is most governors or mayors put some sort of brake on to prevent the spread of covid when the hospitals start to load up. Even most Republican governors and mayors who want to parrot back “freedom and individual rights” change their tune when the hospitals are filling up. I guess maybe they have a bit of a conscience in the end. Too little too late though.

The worst outbreaks in the US would be a place to see what happens. NYC back in March/April or El Paso today both made the news for having refrigerated trucks to hold the excess dead.

The Army Corps of Engineers set up a field hospital near me at the state fairgrounds. So far it has not been heavily used. (23 patients at the moment). But Wisconsin is pretty bad, and from the anecdotes I hear from health care workers, I expect it will be much harder starting next week. The holiday plague-spreaders are going to strain an already-strained system.

Even most Republican governors and mayors who want to parrot back “freedom and individual rights” change their tune when the hospitals

Some of them feel less need to appease the pandemic deniers now that the election is over. They stayed on message to avoid angering rabid Trumpanzees. Now they can react to reality and be less concerned about the hysterical crazies.

@JLeslie I cancel my own elective hernia surgery that I was planning on last February. I have 2 lower abdominal hernias and one inguinal hernia. My family practice doctor told me that if I experience severe pain to go to the ED. I get by with a truss cinched up tight. I’m waiting for a vaccine to the SARS-CoV- (China Virus) before I get a hernia repair.

@Call_Me_Jay This Thanksgiving holiday is scary to me. My city had the largest jump in cases ever (from what I can remember) on yesterday’s report. Crossing my fingers it was a data dump or an aberration.

@gondwanalon Our jelly with cancer couldn’t get cancer surgery he needed because it was deemed elective. That’s crazy to me.

Most people wanted to delay their own procedures that could wait.

My 89-year-old mother was just in the hospital for coronavirus. I hope that means she has some immunity. Catching the virus before the holiday deluge could turn out to be fortunate timing,

@JLeslie: I meant the third wave of outbreak.

@luigirovatti Gotcha. I guess I think of covid as always being here. The wave is what, the numbers going up in the country? In most of the mountain states and western part of the midwest it is more like their first wave. In Florida it feels like we are always in a wave, always waiting for the Tsunami. I do have to agree with you that the country numbers do matter though, I worry about it selfishly also, because every corner of America comes to vacation in my state.