Category: patient flow

As hospitals struggle with a critical staff shortage, several have had to permanently or temporarily halt some services.

Bristow (Okla.) Medical Center will temporarily halt services as Sherman, Texas-based Carrus Health takes over owner management of the facility, KRMG reported Dec. 29.

COVID-19 hospitalizations — which are less sensitive to holiday-related data lags than positivity rates, case counts or deaths — are up in more than half the United States and doubled over the past two weeks in three states and Washington, D.C.

Ohio reported 5,356 COVID-19 hospitalizations Dec. 29, surpassing the previous hospitalizations record of 5,308 on Dec. 15, 2020, Gov. Mike DeWine said in a press release.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health is postponing elective surgeries at its hospital in Bethesda, Md., as dozens of staff must isolate or quarantine, Reuters reported Dec. 29.

University of Chicago at Ingalls-Flossmoor (Ill.) temporarily closed its urgent aid location Dec. 29 because of the COVID-19 surge.

Cleveland Clinic revised its timeline for the resumption of nonurgent procedures to mid-January. 

Tomah (Wis.) Health is suspending urgent care starting Jan. 1 as it deals with high patient volume from COVID-19 and other illnesses.

New York City Health and Hospitals, which operates the city’s 11 public hospitals, put visitation limitation policies in place Dec. 22 after visitors were linked to a COVID-19 outbreak at one facility, The New York Times reported.

Several hospitals across Maryland have activated crisis standards of care as COVID-19 hospitalizations spike.