Via The New York Times: Coronavirus Live Updates: U.S. Death Toll Nears 10,000 as Hospitals Run Low on Supplies.
Hospitals continue to confront severe shortages in testing and protective equipment for medical staff working to combat the coronavirus outbreak, according to a government watchdog report released on Monday that appears to undercut President Trump’s assurances that states have sufficient resources.
Staff and patients alike are put at risk by the lack of available protective gear, according to the report by the inspector general of Health and Human Services.
Hospital administrators are forced to grapple with “sharp increases” in prices for items such as masks, gloves and face shields from vendors, the report continues.
The lack of testing has forced hospitals to extend the stays of patients, pushing the facilities even farther beyond their capacities. Hospitals are also in need of thermometers, disinfectants, medical gas, linens, toilet paper and food. And doctors around the United States are still pleading for ventilators, even as the federal government has limited the number of lifesaving devices issued to states.
“Hospitals reported an uncertain supply of standard, full-feature ventilators and in some cases used alternatives to support patients, including adapting anesthesia machines and using single-use emergency transport ventilators,” according to the report. “Hospitals anticipated that ventilator shortages would pose difficult decisions about ethical allocation and liability.”
The report was based on interviews conducted March 23 through March 27 with more than 320 hospitals across 46 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The findings are in line with pleas made by governors, medical workers and hospital administrators, but they contrast sharply with statements made by Mr. Trump, who said this weekend that hospital administrators were “thrilled to be where they are.”
“Whenever local shortages are reported, we’re asking states to immediately meet the demand. And we’re stockpiling large amounts in different areas — in different areas,” Mr. Trump said at a White House news briefing on Saturday.
The report was issued days after reports that protective equipment in the government’s strategic national stockpile was nearly depleted, forcing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to conduct an international search for such equipment. Those efforts have also increased competition for states and localities. FEMA has also had to ration the ventilators it has, issuing them to hospital systems that have patients at risk of death within 72 hours without such equipment.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said that Alex Azar, the secretary of the agency, had already accepted recommendations from the report, including allowing governors to let health care providers practice across state lines. The agency is also recommending that states reactivate licenses for retired health care providers.
