February 7, 2022 – Even though the hospitalization rates of COVID-19 patients decreased in the last week of January 2022, The Guardian reports that 80% of hospitals in the United States were under “high or extreme stress.”
High or extreme stress is defined by 10 percent or more of total hospitalizations being COVID-19 patients, according to a framework from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle. Georgia, Missouri and New Mexico hospitals were at the most extreme levels of strain in the country, according to the data compiled by NPR. Vermont, Alaska and Wyoming were reporting the least stress from COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Brian Resler, an emergency physician in the San Francisco Bay Area, polled a group of doctors on an overnight shift about their jobs. He said, “Every one of us said if we could go back, we would choose a different career. Most people got into healthcare because they wanted to help people and make a difference, and I think at this point, it’s just broken beyond repair.”
When hospitalizations surge, the number of beds plummets. Dr. Rachel Pearson, assistant professor of pediatrics and the medical humanities at UT Health San Antonio, said “When those numbers get small, it means that we have to make some hard decisions. Sometimes that means kids who I would prefer to be upstairs with my hospital pediatrics team are stranded in the [emergency department]. We are stretched. It seems like we have been able to find creative solutions to safely care for kids for the most part, but I really feel for those rural doctors out there because I know sometimes, they are on the phone and making call, after call, after call, trying to find a hospital with a higher level of care that can accept their sick patient.”
After having to make so many hard decisions regarding patient care for almost two years, many medical professionals are severely burnt out and some are even considering leaving the profession altogether.