Doctors are making decisions about a patient’s recovery with an incomplete understanding of the disease caused by the coronavirus. Although federal officials have issued general guidelines, physicians said they can’t offer recovered patients who aren’t retested any guarantees about whether they could transmit the virus.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
Under pressure, the federal government announced it will let surgery centers, hotels and even college dorms serve as hospitals to treat an overflow of patients.
Revenue is way down for primary care, specialty physicians and some hospitals as patients avoid non-urgent visits. Practices small and large are doling out layoffs and furloughs to staff.
A coalition of anesthesiologists wants to repurpose the country’s more than 5,000 surgery centers to serve as emergency overflow amid the coronavirus pandemic. The centers have trained medical staff largely sitting idle, anesthesia machines that could be turned into ventilators, and empty medical space. But obstacles such as federal payment rules, logistics and some skepticism are getting in the way.
As they prepare for an onslaught of coronavirus patients, health officials in New York and other states urge retired medical professionals to rejoin the ranks.
Doctors sent an impassioned, desperate letter to Congress describing the lack of protective equipment across the country — from masks to respirators to gowns to goggles. They’re using equipment from construction sites and home-repair stores or wearing the same mask from patient to patient. And they worry about what exposure without sufficient protection means for them and their families.
If you or your company have useful supplies and want to donate them, here are some answers to questions you might be asking.
California physicians dealing with COVID-19 offer a sobering portrait of a health care system bracing for the worst of a pandemic that could be months from peaking.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
