Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Found this article this morning, and I guess the low flu cases this year is another thing we can be extremely thankful for. Three years ago hospitals were in a very similar situation at this time of year with flu outbreaks. Thankfully this year flu seems to be very limited:
Doubt it, I think we are good. - the influenza virus never dies, it just travels from the Northern to the Southern hemisphere of the planet. The Southern Hemisphere had very few flu cases due to social distancing and mask wearing. We are now seeing the effects up here in the Northern Hemisphere as the virus travels to our part of the planet during our winter.
So far, very good signs for the flu.
On the other hand, COVID-19 now takes up at least 1/5 of the hospital beds and we still have the regular number of heart attacks, strokes, pneumonia, car accidents/trauma, alcohol abuse, mental illness, etc. Definitely a harder year than previous ones. We've converted pre-operative and post-operative rooms into actual medical rooms.
Doubt it, I think we are good. - the influenza virus never dies, it just travels from the Northern to the Southern hemisphere of the planet. The Southern Hemisphere had very few flu cases due to social distancing and mask wearing. We are now seeing the effects up here in the Northern Hemisphere as the virus travels to our part of the planet during our winter.
So far, very good signs for the flu.
I don't think the flu is going to be nearly as bad as it is typically gets, but I do think it will pick up a bit over the next month or so as the winter goes along and some students are back in school.
Found this article this morning, and I guess the low flu cases this year is another thing we can be extremely thankful for. Three years ago hospitals were in a very similar situation at this time of year with flu outbreaks. Thankfully this year flu seems to be very limited:
You seem to want to convince others that is it not that bad and that it was just as bad at other times. To those of us who work in health you are way off the mark. This is not like years past. Nursing homes have never been in the situation they are in now due to the flu. To those of us in healthcare watching the impacts of this virus and we do not see a bright side. On a personnel level it does sound as if you are trying to minimize the impacts of COVID.
You seem to want to convince others that is it not that bad and that it was just as bad at other times. To those of us who work in health you are way off the mark. This is not like years past. Nursing homes have never been in the situation they are in now due to the flu. To those of us in healthcare watching the impacts of this virus and we do not see a bright side. On a personnel level it does sound as if you are trying to minimize the impacts of COVID.
I'm unsure what makes you think that, but you're welcome to your opinion. As far as nursing homes go, this seems sort of obvious since there is a vaccine for flu. You'll probably take that as me minimizing covid, when in fact I'm just pointing out what I assume is the reason nursing homes don't have major problems with flu. Hopefully going forward, nursing homes will not have major problems with covid.
You seem to want to convince others that is it not that bad and that it was just as bad at other times. To those of us who work in health you are way off the mark. This is not like years past. Nursing homes have never been in the situation they are in now due to the flu. To those of us in healthcare watching the impacts of this virus and we do not see a bright side. On a personnel level it does sound as if you are trying to minimize the impacts of COVID.
Yep. Over and over and over. Oh, almost covid 3,500 hospitalizations in NC yesterday.
As of this morning, we now have the most COVID-19 inpatients than at any point in the pandemic. The percentages for the ICU are similar to what I posted above - perhaps just 3-4 more admissions for people under the age of 30.
For those who don't work in a hospital - the census is already high anyway during this time. We've converted pre-operative beds and POST-operative beds into real medical beds. Our "emergency overflow" is now into our regular medical beds.
Probably the worst part? Our MDs don't want to work more hours, they refuse. Nursing doesn't want to work more hours. Medical "techs" don't want to work more hours. They all have their own families. Guess who suffers? The patient - which could be you.
Bottom line: Yes, NC hospitals "have physical room" but there are no staff to open up these rooms. Make sure to question every news story you read.
Last edited by Universe93B; 01-02-2021 at 08:46 AM..
As of early December Duke had said that they were still doing elective surgeries. Cape Fear Valley in Fayetteville said that patient numbers would need to quadruple before they halted them. Have the Triangle hospitals stopped elective surgeries as of yet? I know things have changed since then...
As of early December Duke had said that they were still doing elective surgeries. Cape Fear Valley in Fayetteville said that patient numbers would need to quadruple before they halted them. Have the Triangle hospitals stopped elective surgeries as of yet? I know things have changed since then...
Yes, we have restricted elective surgeries but NOT all of them like in March/April. Duke, UNC and WakeMed are restricting elective surgeries, so don't worry. But that move alone is NOT enough. Mainly, that's due to the fact that's how the hospital makes money. Triangle area hospitals have a large issue with the balance of elective surgery beds vs other medical conditions that they only get 50% collections on.
But honestly, this strategy is not working, because we don't have enough nurses to work any of these beds. The nurses and staff that said they would work elective surgery beds, do NOT have to work COVID-19 beds. Therefore, as the surgeries decrease, we have no staff. Elective surgery beds are down to 30% this week and nurses say they are "DONE." The nurses, techs, and nurses aids have said they want "a break."
Richest country in the world and we have staffing issues. Just perfect.
And it's cool that we are not like California, but there are large problems in our state about medical care. If you want to ignore it, then god help you when you turn 65 y/o or whatever age you need our help.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
