Why hospitals are laying off.

Since I retired I've been working part time at a local hospital in their "Senior Life Solutions" program. We work with seniors (fitting since I am one!) who have lost a partner, had a partner go into a nursing home, have a partner with serious health issues like dementia, or are facing decisions like going into assisted living or a nursing home themselves. We are an "intensive outpatient" program under the supervision of a psychiatrist. Our patients come in for the day & leave every day. We help our patients get through the grief process and deal with a lot of depression and anxiety. We also work with our patients' families. Due to the risks of having outpatients in the hospital during COVID-19 our program has been put on "hold" and we've been laid off. Also, the hospital can't perform any non life threatening surgeries. So a bunch of other staff are suddenly not needed and are laid off. The list goes on. This is just a small rural hospital. SSM in St. Louis just laid off 2000 employees. The crazy part is that while the ER's and ICU's are swamped at many hospitals, other departments within the same hospital can't admit patients or work with outpatients. And some people are understandably afraid to come to the hospital for needed health care. Thus the loss of income to the hospital which results in layoffs.

Hubert, what you've said is not political, just the absolute truth.

One of the men in my church woke up Friday morning with terrible pain in his lower stomach/groin area. Stemmed and stewed about it for an hour and called EMS since his wife is unable to drive. They picked him up and delivered to the nearest hospital emergency room. ER doctor determined he had appendicitis. Now this large hospital had no surgeons on duty so shipped him across town to another hospital. They rushed him in for emergency surgery, but alas, by this time his appendics had burst. Now he will be in hospital for at least 5 days while they treat the infection/ sepsis from this ordeal.

Not to be too critical but you would expect the ambulance folk to have a clue on what hospital situations were what and transport accordingly. Maybe just one of those things....

Yesterday, May 19, BJC Health Care in St. Louis announced that 3000 employees will be furloughed. BJC owns a bunch of hospitals in the St. Louis area, on both sides of the Mississippi. COVID-19 is playing hades with the health care industry.