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116+ hospitals postponing elective surgeries broken down by state Alia Paavola - Updated Monday, December 21st, 2020
Hospitals across the U.S. are beginning to suspend elective procedures to respond to an uptick in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Below is a breakdown of hospitals postponing or canceling the procedures to free up space, ensure proper staffing or enough protective gear to care for COVID-19 patients.
1. Elective surgeries are a key cost driver for hospitals and surgery centers. ConsumerMedical's analysis found the average cost of back surgery was between $50,000 and $90,000, and a single knee replacement typically cost $30,000.
2. Elective surgeries were down 65 percent from March to April, compared to the same period in 2019.
3. A 30 percent drop in office-based surgery visits from March to April will likely contribute to increased condition severity, incidence and costs.
4. Also compared to 2019, physical therapy visits dropped 35 percent from March to April, and there were 41 percent fewer injections to manage pain.
5. The average wait time for rescheduling surgery was four months.
Cancer Surgeries and Organ Transplants Are Being Put Off for Coronavirus. Can They Wait?
In a given month, more than a million people have some kind of surgery. The elective procedures being postponed because of coronavirus aren’t all optional. Cancer patients and organ recipients are being forced to wait.
by Joanne Lipman for ProPublica
April 6, 2020, 12:03 p.m. EDT
Is scheduled cancer surgery considered elective surgery?
This question initially arose when state and local governments asked all hospitals to cancel elective surgeries in preparation for an anticipated surge in COVID-19 patients. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) also made a similar recommendation shortly thereafter.
Our immediate response was to distinguish elective surgery from potentially curative cancer surgery, which we have called “essential cancer surgery.”
At MSK, our surgeons manage about 30,000 surgical cases annually across 13 surgical services in the Department of Surgery and Department of Neurosurgery. About 5 to 10 percent of our surgical volume is genuinely elective, including incisional hernia repairs, cholecystectomy for biliary colic, ostomy takedowns, and some plastic and reconstructive procedures. Another 20 to 30 percent of cases are more cancer specific but can be deferred safely for several months, including most reconstructive surgical procedures, prostatectomy for low-grade prostate cancer, pancreatectomy for cystic neoplasms without cancer or high-risk features, and thyroidectomy for low-grade thyroid cancer.
We initially moved these cases off our surgical schedule to comply with government edicts while continuing to perform essential cancer surgeries, such as brain tumor, breast, colon, pancreas, stomach, liver, kidney, bladder, and lung resections. The ACS has subsequently validated this approach, as has the New York State Department of Health.
In addition to the hundreds of cancer operations being cancelled as hospitals are inundated with patients with COVID-19, more than 3800 patients with cancer in London are already waiting beyond the 62-day target for their first cancer treatment, and more than 1000 individuals needing urgent cancer surgery do not yet have a date for their treatment. Estimates suggest that in London alone, more than 500 patients with cancer need to be treated per week to stay on top of demand, but most hospitals that were meant to remain COVID-19-free are now compromised. The Nightingale hospitals, set up across the UK to help provide care for the anticipated increases in patients with COVID-19, are still not fully operational. Despite the cancellation of urgent cancer surgery, they are now being earmarked for recovering patients who are not ready to be discharged from hospital, as well as for mass COVID-19 vaccination centres. Staff recruitment is a major problem, and an urgent appeal has gone out for doctors and nurses to work at the Nightingale hospitals. If these emergency hospitals were staffed properly and used to their full potential, the impact of COVID-19 on cancer surgery might be reduced.
Results: Clinic, lab, and surgical visit cancellations increased by 4.20% (P <.001), 4.84% (P <.001), and 5.22% (P <.001), respectively. In the first 10 months of 2020, there were 703 (9.2%) fewer surgeries compared with the same time period in 2019. The following cancellation rates peaked in March 2020: clinic visits (26.53%), labs (43.66%), surgery (34.00%). Radiation oncology (12.53%) cancellations peaked in April 2020. Prior to the emergence of COVID-19, the group aged 0 to 39 years had the highest clinic cancellation rate (17.85%) compared with patients aged 40 to 64 years (15.95%) and 65 years and older (14.52%; P <.001). Men cancelled (15.63%) significantly more often than women (14.93%; P <.001) in 2019. This reversed during the pandemic: Women (19.56%) cancelled more frequently than men (19.20%; P <.036).
Conclusions: There was a large increase in cancelled oncologic care in 2020, which has implications for delayed diagnosis and treatment. This was especially true for patients older than 65 years and for women. These delays could result in patients presenting with more advanced disease, complicating morbidities, and ultimately worse long-term outcomes.
Delays and Disruptions in Cancer Health Care Due to COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review
It's a "if we don't do something about this tumor in your liver, you're going to die." And you're trying to compare it to people getting a nose job.
cancer patients had surgeries delayed or canceled. nose job patients didn't appear to. so yes, a comparison was being made here to point out the retardation.
It did happen, it was supposedly fixed later. I just find it humorous it happened in reverse as well.
The first link links to the second link, and that link says:
QUESTION:
Are people who have died in car accidents counted as COVID-19 deaths?
ANSWER:
No. There is a two-level system in place to make sure death counts are accurate.
The Verify team found a case in which someone's death after a motor vehicle accident was inaccurately attributed to COVID-19. But that case has since been fixed.
A case.
One case.
C'mon, man. I'm on your side here in general (that the Covid "crisis" is being way overblown and exploited for political gain), but making statements like the one which precipitated my question do nothing but weaken the argument and make us look bad.
There's enough legitimate evidence of deceit and corruption just lying on the ground like graphite that we don't need to be making claims like that