Major healthcare providers are suspending “almost all surgeries” because nurses are overwhelmed by treating people who are not treated with COVID.


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Healthcare workers are seen in the COVID Intensive Care Unit at North Oaks Hospital in Hammond, Louisiana, August 13, 2021. Emily Cask / AFP / Getty Images

  • Intermountain Healthcare has announced that some hospitals will postpone “almost all surgery” due to the increasing number of cases of COVID-19.

  • Outages occur “for weeks” in 13 of the 24 hospitals in the system.

  • “Our team is overwhelmed and there is a shortage of patient staff,” said an Intermountain press release.

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More than half of hospitals in major healthcare systems in the western United States have suspended “almost all surgery” for “weeks” due to an increase in COVID-19 cases.

Intermountain Healthcare, a leading healthcare provider headquartered in Utah, Presentation On Friday, we announced that we would postpone “all non-urgent surgery and procedures that require admission to trauma and community hospitals” from Wednesday.

According to a press release, the system has 24 hospitals, 13 of which are expected to comply with the outage.

“This postponement will begin on September 15th and will last for several weeks. We will continue to assess the situation,” the release said.

Dr. Marc Harrison, CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, told CBS affiliates KUTV Half of the system’s ICU bed is occupied by patients infected with COVID-19. The overwhelming majority (90%) of those patients were unvaccinated, he said.

“We need some drastic action to maintain public health,” Harrison said. “The cavalry isn’t coming. We are cavalry. When I say” us, “I mean the whole community. “

Harrison stopped short of approval when asked by KUTV about his stance on the vaccine mission.

“Our epidemiological predictions suggest that we are not even in the worst part yet,” he said. “I think we’ll need about 40 ICU beds and about 70 regular beds in the near future. And what do you guess? We don’t have them.”

According to a press release, hospitals are “in crisis” due to the surge in cases of COVID-19, especially in Utah.

“COVID-19 cases continue to grow significantly in Utah, and as a result, the entire system is consistently infected in hospital ICUs and acute care units,” the release said. “Our team is overwhelmed and there is a shortage of staffed beds for patients.”

In Utah, the number of COVID-19 positive cases continues to increase rapidly. data Edited by Johns Hopkins University. Hospitalization has also increased since July. More than half of Utah’s population is vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to JHU data.

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