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As the physicians are taking care of the pandemic patients the hospital attorneys are figuring out what wording to use on memos to their staff regarding who gets the few vents. The determining factor can not be age or other unlawful criteria but can be on other criteria such as ability to recover or underlying diseases. After this is over watch for the suits stating the hospital ignored the impending signs of a pandemic after the past ones and after the CDC has warned about same.
In the same vein the insurers will be looking to exclude or at least ask a lot of questions regarding future coverage especially in D&O insurance.
The government Ocare marketplaces will not re-open to new patients but the states who have their own may do so.
A small study of 10 patients reported in a journal showed that the pooled plasma of already infected corona patients given to those currently infected may be of considerable benefit.
Blue Shield of California is providing up to $200 million in direct support to physician practices. It is also removing many prior authorizations requirements
The fed stockpile of PPE is depleted and therefore no more PPE will be coming to the states.
Remember the flu. In the season's final report in America 39 million people got the flu, there were 400,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 people died.
A new report shows the problems that we all knew with EMR. No data integration and unbelievable dumb repetition. This leads to repeated medical care and increased operating expenses. This also leads to potential problems that may jeopardize the patient.
To me the last several weeks have been fascinating medicalwise. We have seen the physicians caring for patients come to the realization that vents are not helping the patients. they are now using c-pap and other ways to increase oxygen and treating the cytokine flare. Others are using proning and are seeing dramatic oxygen rises. Top
There are some hospitals that are either very stupid, have very stupid attorneys are all of the above. At this time they are firing their staff members for speaking out about the lack of PPE and other problems related to the pandemic. They want to choke the medical and nursing staff from showing up their shortfalls. This started with China who muzzled a physician who initially told abut the strange new virus in Wuhan. Now this same type is being followed by Northwestern University, NYU Langone, Motefiore and PeaceHealth. They should be ashamed of themselves.
After I wrote the above another hospital became the leader in stupidity. Newark Beth Israel Medical Center fired a nurse after she individually raised $12,000 to purchase PPE and distributed the property she purchased with the money to her colleagues. Her fellow nurses spoke to the press about the lack of hospital purchased PPE and stating there was never anything about not distributing PPE to staff. The hospital is giving regular masks to ICU nurses and in other parts of the hospital are giving nurses a plain mask in a paper bag to be used for one week.
Quorum Health of Brentwood, Tennessee, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize and restructure their debt.
Some hospitals do not want to lose money so they have continued with elective surgery during the pandemic. It depends on the system and the state. Does the state have a no elective procedure order? Sanford Health is doing procedures in states where there is no order but not in states where one is in place. UPMC is another that has money over patients. Top
DISCLAIMER: Although this article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers should consult with their own legal counsel before acting on any of the information presented.