Dire situation in Sun Belt hospitals and bracing for worse

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Fri, 2020-07-17 08:36 — mike kraft

Sun Belt hospitals are feeling the strain from virus’ surge — and bracing for worse Outbreaks of coronavirus threaten to overwhelm medical centers and exhaust doctors, nurses. Griff Witte, Rachel Weiner Washington Post

In California, doctors are shipping patients as many as 600 miles away because they can’t be cared for locally. In Florida, nurses are pouring in from out of state to reinforce exhausted medical workers. And in Texas, mayors are demanding the right to shut down their cities to avoid overwhelming hospitals.

In a nation gripped by a record number of coronavirus cases — with severe outbreaks across multiple states and regions — medical systems are increasingly showing the strain, with shortages of critically needed personnel, equipment and testing.

And officials on Thursday said they are concerned that hospitals will soon hit a breaking point if the trajectory of ever-growing caseloads doesn’t change.

“We can withstand a surge. We can withstand a disaster. But we can’t withstand a disaster every single day,” said Jason Wilson, associate medical director of the emergency department at Tampa General Hospital. “How many jumbo jet crashes can you handle before you run out of capacity? That’s what we’re facing.”

The peril was reflected in another grim set of data out of Florida on Thursday, with the state reporting a record number of deaths — 156 — and adding nearly 14,000 new cases, its second-highest total to date. Across the state, nearly 9,000 people remain hospitalized for treatment of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

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