Some hospitals are running out of health care workers. Here's what could happen next

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Thu, 2020-11-12 14:04 — mike kraft

Some hospitals are running out of health care workers. Here's what could happen next Imagine going to a hospital so overwhelmed, doctors and nurses with Covid-19 are allowed to keep working. Or having a heart attack and getting rushed to a hospital, only to learn there's not enough emergency care for you. These scenarios have already turned into reality. Holly Yan, CNN CNN

(CNN) Imagine going to a hospital so overwhelmed, doctors and nurses with Covid-19 are allowed to keep working.

Or having a heart attack and getting rushed to a hospital, only to learn there's not enough emergency care for you.

These scenarios have already turned into reality. The US has more people hospitalized with Covid-19 this week than at any other point in the pandemic.

"The difference between what's happening now versus what happened before is that the virus is everywhere now," emergency medicine physician Dr. Leana Wen said.

"Before, there were just a few hot spots across the country. There were health care workers who could volunteer and go between different states," she said.

"But when the virus is so widespread, we could very well ... run out of health care workers, which means that patient care is going to suffer. And we will be at breaking point in our hospitals."

Nationwide, 61,964 patients were hospitalized with Covid-19 on Tuesday, according to the Covid Tracking Project. That's the highest number since this pandemic began.

"We're already seeing our hospitals at breaking point in some parts of the country. And that means it doesn't just affect patients with coronavirus," Wen said.

"It also means that elective surgeries are being put off for things like hip replacements, for cancer surgery or heart surgery in some cases." ...

Surges in rural areas are especially concerning since many rural hospitals have less capacity to expand the ability to care for patients and fewer resources to fall back on," said Nancy Foster, vice president of quality and patient safety policy for the American Hospital Association.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said hospital capacity is now a major concern in both rural and urban parts of the state....

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