Hospitals were in trouble long before COVID
Regarding “Pandemic pushes many doctors over the brink” (Insight, Nov. 20): In June 2006, the Institute of Medicine declared that the American hospital-based emergency care system was at the breaking point, facing an epidemic of overcrowded emergency rooms, patients boarding in hallways waiting to be admitted and daily ambulance diversions.
A particular concern was inadequate surge capacity and an inability to respond to a major strain on the system. In 2020, those fears were proven true with the arrival of the COVID pandemic that overwhelmed emergency rooms and claimed the lives of thousands of U.S. health care workers as the result of shortages of masks and protective equipment, a lack of coronavirus testing and contact tracing, among other factors.
The article’s writer, Dr. Molly Phelps, joined the 1 in 5 U.S. health care workers who quit their jobs from February 2020 to September 2021.
The time to reinvent our emergency care system is long overdue, and the first step is to prioritize our precious resources to support those individuals who bravely fight the war against COVID each day in America’s hospitals.
John Maa, San Francisco