LANSING, Mich. — Across the country, hospitals are bleeding cash. While many ER's are being overrun with COVID patients, others are still waiting for the surge, canceling elective procedures and not making money. Chris Conte looks into how they're having to furlough doctors and curses, just as the country works to rebound.
Inside hospitals from coast-to-coast there are health care workers pulling some of the longest shifts of their careers.
They say every generation there's something that fundamentally changes us in ways they didn’t anticipate, well this is that one
Steve Norton oversees a handful of hospitals in New Hampshire. Hospitals that were expecting to see a massive surge in COVID patients. While there have been hundreds of cases here the surge has been far less than anticipated. Which Steve is fine with.
"Our hospitals are not busy right now as we try to determine where are we in the curve"
Here's the problem though. Every elective surgery and procedure was put on hold. From knee replacements to routine checkups. Fewer patients coming in means less money coming in. Last month this hospital lost 25 MILLION dollars. 675 employees had to be furloughed in April.
Every health system in the country is facing a very similar question
As part of the federal stimulus deal, hospitals are getting reimbursed an extra 20 percent for COVID patients they treat on medicare.
But may hospitals say, that's not enough.
"It definitely brings a level of anxiety to my job I never thought I would have" said Steve Norton
Alison Chick is a nurse practitioner who was recently furloughed.
"I felt a sense of being useless to the community that I wasn't providing the services I was trained to do and I didn't know how"
Rural hospitals nationwide are particular susceptible to financial collapse. Since since 2005 at least 170 rural emergency rooms have closed permanently across the country. Experts believe some ER's already on financial life support before COVID - won't survive.
We can not overstate the fact that hospitals are too important to fail
Hospitals and patients needing time to heal in order to rebound from this epidemic.
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