TAMPA, Fla. -- As states across the American South and West grapple with shortages of vital testing equipment and a key antiviral drug, hospitals are being flooded with coronavirus patients, forcing them to cancel elective surgeries and discharge patients early, as doctors worry that the escalating hospital
TAMPA, Fla. — As states across the American South and West grapple with shortages of vital testing equipment and a key antiviral drug, hospitals are being flooded with coronavirus patients, forcing them to cancel elective surgeries and discharge patients early, as doctors worry that the escalating hospital crunch may last much longer than in earlier-hit areas like New York.
Florida is struggling with one of the worst outbreaks in the country, along with Texas, California and Arizona: 43 intensive care units in 21 Florida counties have hit capacity and have no beds available. Story continuesTexas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday ordered an increase in hospital bed capacity for dozens of counties, extending a ban on elective procedures to new corners of the state in an effort to assist hospitals dealing with the outbreak.
Dr. Diego Maselli Caceres at University Hospital in San Antonio said he has watched a sevenfold surge of COVID-19 patients needing intensive care over the past month, filling up three floors of the hospital instead of one. His workload has increased to 15 hours a day, he said. Regular beds are easily converted into ICU capability, doctors and hospital experts say. The bigger challenge is having enough advanced practice nurses who are qualified to care for such patients and equipment such as ventilators.
Mohamed Ibrahim Ali, a critical care doctor at AdventHealth North Pinellas near St. Petersburg, Florida, one of the hospitals that have no more available ICU beds, said that the system was clogged up by patients, sent from nursing homes, who had recovered but had not yet received the all-clear. He said nursing homes have refused to accept residents back unless they have tested negative, a period that could take days.
“It’s political inertia,” he said. “It takes somebody in a position of significant political stature to say, ‘Let’s do this.’ Florida has always been afraid that people were going to come into the state and take their jobs. Now we need all the help we can get.”
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