Victim of the moratorium on elective surgery.
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Talk about timing…
On Sunday, I broached a sensitive topic with my wife: Which hospital should we go to if we catch the coronavirus?
We’re heavily biased towards teaching hospitals, and the docs at Georgetown Hospital were amazing during Kathy’s grueling bout with breast cancer.
But, we concluded that Georgetown – a metroplex hospital — would probably be overrun with cases.
So, we started leaning towards our large, modern local option: Anne Arundel Medical Center
Then, on Monday, the news hit…
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According to the Annapolis Capital Gazette…
“Anne Arundel Medical Center has furloughed 1,000 employees.”
Say, what?
In accordance with federal guidelines, the Annapolis hospital canceled all elective surgeries and “ambulatory service” … which are the economic backbones of the hospital.
But, up to now, the C-19 patient load has been very light.
Bottom line: the hospital has been patient and revenue light for a month … facilities are underutilized … and the hospital is bleeding red ink.
So, there was no choice but to lay-off medical staff … they became victims of the coronavirus!
Nonetheless, the hospital says not to worry:
These furloughs do not impact our commitment or ability to safely supply and equip our hospitals to combat COVID-19,
We have trained and redeployed hundreds of staff to support the expected COVID-19 surges in the state of Maryland.
Apparently, AAMC’s predicament is not unique.
The guidelines were obviously developed with the C-19 hot spots’ hospitals in mind … and, the one-size-fits-all rules made other hospitals collateral damage.
Sad, but true.
The Homa Files 