MEMPHIS, Tennessee —
Hospital healthcare workers are working fewer hours and some, as of this week, are furloughed. All this at a time when you would expect more of an "all hands on deck" approach to patient care, but doctors say things aren't exactly what they seem in hospitals.
COVID-19 is a health emergency around the globe, so why are all healthcare workers not busy? One of the reasons is that with priority going to COVID-19 patients, here in Tennessee hospitals aren't as busy as they once were after pulling the curtain on elective surgeries and those who perform them said Dr. Stephen Threlkeld of Baptist Hospital.
"All hospitals, the total number of patients in hospitals is down dramatically because a large portion of a hospital or clinics business is and throughput of patients in elective stuff. Someone who is there for an annual checkup or an elective disc surgery. I mean you could go on and on," said Threlkeld.
Hospitals are delaying services that may not be a matter of life or death to make way for COVID-19 patients. The good news is that there are plenty of hospital beds for the worst cases of the coronvirus, a position many places like New York aren't fortunate to be in, but the other side to that is less activity in hospitals means there is little work for staffers.
This has led to changes in Mid-South hospitals like Saint Francis where just this week 3% of hospital staff company wide began furloughs. In a statement, St. Francis officials said, "Our expectation is that we can return impacted staff to service once we navigate through this unprecedented time and can return to providing our full range of patient care services."
The hospital says COVID-19 patients, emergency care, and bedside nursing are not affected by the furloughs. In his daily update Thursday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said cutting hospital staff hours and furloughs were necessary to bring that staff back when COVID-19 numbers increase.
"The curve had to be flattened so that we didn't strain our healthcare system. I've seen in our state that we've accomplished that goal of flattening the curve," said Lee.
Lee tied all of this to the plan to reopen the state's economy by saying the number of COVID-19 cases in hospitals will strongly determine when that plan will happen.
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