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medpundit |
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Friday, May 09, 2003America's public health system — especially its front-line emergency rooms — is not ready for an outbreak of SARS or a similar infectious disease, according to a new government report and top trauma doctors. "Most hospitals lack adequate equipment, isolation facilities, and staff to treat a large increase in the number of patients for infectious diseases such as SARS," the U.S. General Accounting Office reported Wednesday in testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "We're way behind," GAO health care director Janet Heinrich said in an interview the same day. And emergency room doctors, meeting in Washington said such an outbreak could collapse an already fragile American emergency room network. "I liken the SARS problem right now to a two-acre fire in a tinder-dry forest," said Dr. Arthur Kellerman, an Emory University School of Medicine professor and Atlanta emergency room doctor. "We don't have the capacity in any city in my mind to handle a real outbreak of the disease." The CDC counters that other places, like armories and hotels, could be used to house patients if need be, but the GAO still has its reservations: But Heinrich said staff and equipment shortages at hospitals were so bad at seven cities visited by the GAO, Congress' investigative arm, that hospital officials said they would have trouble finding enough doctors and nurses to deal with an infectious-disease emergency. One state reported that only 11 per cent of its hospitals could expand enough to house and treat patients in such an epidemic. I'd say that's about right. Every winter, we can count on a flux of hospitalized patients from the effects of influenza, yet every winter I often have trouble finding a hospital bed for my patients when they need to be admitted. And every winter, nearly every day, there's a sign posted on the door of the doctor's lounge at my hospital begging us to discharge patients as early as possible to help relieve the bed shortage. And that's when the surge is predictable. Hospitals just don't have a lot of unused beds lying around waiting for occupants. If they did, they'd go bankrupt in today's healthcare market. A real epidemic would break the system. posted by Sydney on 5/09/2003 08:12:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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