Multiple Ohio Hospitals Postpone Elective Surgeries in Response to Rise in COVID Cases

 

Multiple hospitals throughout Ohio have postponed elective operations due to the rise of coronavirus cases across the state.

According to the healthcare providers, the decision to postpone some operations will free certain resources in order to combat positive cases.

For example, OhioHealth, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and the Cleveland Clinic have all made similar decisions in recent weeks.

“There is a significant increase in patients needing hospitalization in central Ohio. The number of COVID-19 inpatients has reached a peak not seen since January 2021 and it’s straining the region’s hospital systems. We are also seeing high numbers of non-COVID patients who are sicker than typical,” the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center said in a statement.

“This measure will help free the necessary resources for inpatients in need of immediate and life-saving care whether from COVID-19 or other serious illnesses. Surgical procedures deemed necessary to avoid risk to life, permanent dysfunction, progression of cancer or risk of rapidly worsening pain will still occur. Elective cases that do not meet these general criteria will be subject to postponement.”

In the state, cases have jumped to an average positive rate of 16.6 percent, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“Our Ohio hospitals continue to see high volumes of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. In order to make additional beds available, we are extending the postponement of non-urgent surgeries requiring a hospital bed at our Ohio Hospitals through Jan. 14, 2022,” explained the Cleveland Clinic.

Governor Mike DeWine has also deployed more than 1,000 members of the Ohio National Guard to assist overwhelmed hospital staff. Of those, 150 individuals are medical professionals and will aid operations at hospitals and testing locations. The other 900 members will “help with patient transport, housekeeping, and food services.”

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Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].

 

 

 

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3 Thoughts to “Multiple Ohio Hospitals Postpone Elective Surgeries in Response to Rise in COVID Cases”

  1. toni semos

    Why are the National Guard being sent to hospitals? Only 150 have medical training. You create a shortage in their own communities when you take them away from EMS and fire stations where many of them volunteer.
    Using the other Guardsmen as janitors or waiters won’t touch the understaffing problem at all. It’s not like the janitors and waiters they replace are going to start doing patient care.
    You are affecting the Guard’s readiness for real emergencies by exposing them to MRSA and other superbugs in the hospital, especially if you have them cleaning patient rooms. Is the hospital going to pay their salaries or is the taxpayer effectively subsidizing the hospitals, giving them yet another financial Covid windfall?
    Covid has exposed the brittleness of the system in which hospitals have understaffed for years. Yes, nurses and ancillary staff are burnt out but that was happening long before Covid. Administrators have behaved for years as if they were getting bonuses for holding down hiring costs, and the frontline workers have grown weary of carrying ever-more-dangerously-doubled-up assignments.
    This is an institutional problem and cannot be solved, or even alleviated, by use of the National Guard, so why are they being sent to hospitals?

  2. I call BS on this one.
    “Governor Mike DeWine has also deployed more than 1,000 members of the Ohio National Guard to assist overwhelmed hospital staff. Of those, 150 individuals are medical professionals and will aid operations at hospitals and testing locations.”
    Guard members that are medical professionals have jobs in the medical field. To call them up and send them to a hospital is just taking their services away from another hospital. How is that a solution?

  3. Swartz

    This seems to confirm the profit margin for patients hospitalized WITH (not necessarily FROM) Covid is higher than the profit margin on elective surgeries. Hospitals, like other businesses, make rational financial decisions.

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