perhaps we could bring in some of the 1.4 million healthcare workers who have lost their jobs during this covid period.
And not to mention the trained ICU nurses needed. For each bed it takes 3 or 4? Where are they gling to find them?
Spoiler Texas Medical Center hospitals have stopped reporting key metrics showing the stress rising numbers of COVID-19 patients are placing on their facilities, undermining data that policy makers and the public have relied upon during the pandemic to gauge the spread of the coronavirus. The change came one day after the hospitals reported their base intensive care capacity had hit 100 percent for the first time during the pandemic, with projections showing the institutions — which together comprise the world’s largest medical complex — were on pace to exceed their “unsustainable surge capacity” by July 6. It also followed discussions between Gov. Greg Abbott and hospital executives in which the governor expressed displeasure with negative headlines about ICU capacity, sources familiar with the talks said. Abbott spokesman John Wittman said any insinuation that the governor directed the executives to stop publishing certain data is false. “The governor’s office believes all hospitals should be reporting accurate data to the state and to the public as often as possible,” Wittman said Sunday morning. “We demanded more information to share, not less.” The shift, in which TMC deleted charts from its online COVID-19 dashboard, also accompanied public confusion surrounding the hospitals’ ability to withstand a massive spike in cases that has followed Abbott’s May decisions to lift restrictions intended to slow the virus. [...] Friday morning, 24 hours after the four CEOs’ press conference, the TMC released no new data. After reporting 17 charts and graphs on most days for three months, the organization did not post from Thursday morning until Saturday at about 9 p.m. When the charts re-appeared, eight of the 17 original slides had been deleted — including any reference to hospital capacity or projections of future capacity — and the lone remaining slide referencing the risks associated with shrinking capacity had been altered. An “early warning” chart on Thursday reported base ICU capacity had reached 100 percent, and was marked with a red dot signifying a “warning.” On Saturday, the same chart no longer discussed ICU capacity but instead intensive care “census growth,” and was marked with an orange dot signifying “moderate concern.” The item acknowledged rising numbers of ICU COVID-19 patients but stated, “Currently TMC institutions are able to serve all patients requiring intensive care.” Boom, of Houston Methodist, said in an email late Friday that the TMC leaders are in discussions about how to “best educate” news media and the public on hospital capacity issues. “Therefore, the publicly released deck will, at the present time, not include projections or capacity until we can work together to improve the communication of and education around such data,” Boom said. Neither TMC CEO Bill McKeon nor any other hospital system in the medical center returned calls for comment Friday. A note posted on the TMC website Sunday morning said the charts posted Saturday night were “incomplete” and that “new slides as well as a number of updated slides that were absent yesterday” would be released later Sunday to “provide a more comprehensive and accurate description of the current status.” News media and public officials had been referring to the capacity projections for weeks without the TMC or its member hospitals raising any concerns. Angela Blanchard, a disaster expert and former BakerRipley CEO, said the decision by hospital executives to hold back data is troubling, given that still-inadequate testing capabilities make hospital capacity one of the best available metrics to track the virus. “From the beginning, we were told to work together to flatten the curve with the specific goal of keeping our hospitals from being overwhelmed. We sacrificed for that,” she said. “TMC needs to retain our trust by being forthright. If they're worried that the metric misses some nuance, they should explain it. We're not children." [...]
Hospitalization rates are being hugely misinterpreted, according to Texas Medical Center leadership. It's amateur hour as to how civilians and the media are reacting to these statistics... statistics that they just know nothing about. It's shameful actually that they are falsely scaring so many people into changing their behavior. https://justthenews.com/politics-po...t-counting-every-covid-positive-hospital-case At a virtual press conference on Thursday, the chief executives of Houston Methodist, Memorial Hermann Health System, St. Luke’s Health, and Texas Children’s hospitals stated that their hospitals are well-prepared to handle an even greater increase in patients than that which has emerged over the past few weeks. The number of hospitalizations are "being misinterpreted," said Houston Methodist CEO Marc Boom, "and, quite frankly, we’re concerned that there is a level of alarm in the community that is unwarranted right now." "We do have the capacity to care for many more patients, and have lots of fluidity and ability to manage," Boom said. He pointed out that his hospital one year ago was at 95% ICU capacity, similar to the numbers the hospital is seeing today. "It is completely normal for us to have ICU capacities that run in the 80s and 90s," he said. "That's how all hospitals operate." He noted that around 25% of ICU patients are COVID-19-positive. But the hospital "[has] many levers in our ability to adjust our ICU," he said, claiming that the hospital capacity regularly reported by the media is "base" capacity rather than surge capacity. Texas Children's Hospital CEO Mark Wallace added that his facility has "a lot of capacity." "We have the ability to take care of all of the Houstonians that need a critical care environment, that need to be operated on, or acute care," Wallace said. "There is not a scenario, in my opinion, where the demand for our beds ... would eclipse our capability," he continued. "I cannot imagine that. I just cannot."
Where's that trophy you had? Spoiler You took it down. I'm not going to. Sorrynotsorry **** you Abbott. **** Trump. **** Pence. **** you TMC for playing along. "After reporting 17 charts and graphs on most days for three months..." "News media and public officials had been referring to the capacity projections for weeks without the TMC or its member hospitals raising any concerns." 17 charts/graphs Most days - 3 months But now the data is being "misinterpreted".
Not sure why this is hard to understand. The hospital CEOs said they have capacity. The news media put out their typical panic p*rn and scared everybody into hysteria. Deckard even said that Houston was “apocalyptic”, from his echo chamber in Austin. You don’t want sick people staying home because the media misled them.
Since when can anyone believe anything from the media? Lulz.. they all full of **** and only push their agenda. If anyone is believing any blowhard on TV or some dbag on Twitter over the actual words from the leaders of the TMC, y’all need step back and think. We sit on this forum and mock “sauces” and other losers on ESPN but we take some half cocked sorry from the far left media with 100% certainty? That’s crazy talk. The far right media is just as full of **** as well.
all anyone needs to know is that Pence and Birx flew down to Texas to sit in front of the camera with Abbott and say that we now have “new” information and “new” tools you combat the virus and that is to wear masks. They had their oh sh-t moment and realized they better get to the task of actually controlling this thing rather than playing politics. That’s all you need to know about how bad things are. Of course, keep in mind that it is an absolute lie that new information has come out indicating that masks are effective to slow the virus. They must think we are idiots. Or that their dips-t base are idiots. Somehow they have to explain to this base why all of a sudden people need to wear masks when dear leader Trump has made it a political issue.
I can claim going crazy through isolation is bad, but I can't image working inside a hospital at half capacity (heaven forbid it's more) w/ rona cases in the air. If masks suck, imagine wearing one for 10 hrs straight. Then wearing the same one again the next day. But hey, we got boob job doctors and face lifters ready and able to "pick up the slack", amirite?
You are 100% right my man. The media is in it for ratings. Fear = ratings. I've sat through production meetings at a cable news channel before - MOST of their programming has nothing to do with political party wishes. It has everything to do with showing what the viewer wants to see. There's a large segment of our population that tunes in our of fear for their family's well-being. And TV stations are preying on these fears for ratings. It's despicable, really. Meanwhile, dunces run around screaming that we're all going to die, because they believe what they saw on TV. It's astonishing how little information people actually have about what's going on in the world.
With what $? You missed part of the point: Elective procedures are a major income stream for hospitals. If you're losing money you can't hire anyone. Insurance pays for this type of stuff. We're in a hiring and raise freeze. I just had to subsidize my own partial furlough with vacation time. Hospitals don't have the money. Now, if we had true universal health care, it would be a completely different story. Not politics here, it's black and white economics.
To put this into perspective: many centers are looking at hundreds of millions up to a billion in losses because of delayed or canceled elective procedures. Sick patients cost the hospital system money. It’s one of the reasons why I consider the health care model is broke.
I mean with the potential hospital overload. Houston has about 5400 hospital beds available when you include the surge beds. https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/press/PPT_6.16.20.pdf This data is from 6/16 so I made the necessary additions. That said it might not be as bad as I originally thought down in South Texas. They still have around 800+ beds available including surge beds. ICU might be a problem, but we will see.
Is wearing masks actually a political topic and not a common etiquette topic? Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence both recommended wearing masks again this past weekend.
Seems like it's a political thing for some. It seems a lazy/ignorance/inconvenience thing for most. I doubt most of the non-mask wearers I've seen are "sticking it to the Libs" - It's people of all backgrounds and age groups. Plenty of young ones.
