When hospitals routinely operate at 120% and a major crisis doubles what we ask of them, people don't get the treatment they need.
A lot of people don't realize how stretched hospitals are these days.
The newspapers in Britain regularly run headlines about people waiting for hours, days, or even so long that they die on a gurney in the hallways.
It's better, but still problematic in the U.S., though for different reasons.
Here, a lot of people wait the hallways for hours and hours because there are simply not enough doctors, nurses, and support staff available. People look at a shiny hospital building from the outside and think it's brimming with doctors and patients. Often, it's not.
There can be many unoccupied rooms in a hospital simply because there aren't enough people available to meet the standard of care required to occupy a room. That leaves patients to wait in the hallways until the next shift change, and maybe there will be enough staff available to move a patient into a room.
A lot of people don't realize how stretched hospitals are these days.
The newspapers in Britain regularly run headlines about people waiting for hours, days, or even so long that they die on a gurney in the hallways.
It's better, but still problematic in the U.S., though for different reasons.
Here, a lot of people wait the hallways for hours and hours because there are simply not enough doctors, nurses, and support staff available. People look at a shiny hospital building from the outside and think it's brimming with doctors and patients. Often, it's not.
There can be many unoccupied rooms in a hospital simply because there aren't enough people available to meet the standard of care required to occupy a room. That leaves patients to wait in the hallways until the next shift change, and maybe there will be enough staff available to move a patient into a room.