That is exactly where we are at many of the Houston hospitals. SIL’s hospital is definitely there - I don’t know about how many others. I can see the “extra capacity” on the charts but the nurses aren’t there to cover it all.
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As far as we’re been able to tell so far, no one is telling specific classes, just which schools have positive cases. Which is one way to get around the number of kids in quarantine issue.
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Yes. They can find non-ICU capacity much more easily than staff.
There’s no easy answer for any of this. I’ve been involved in hospital administration for 20 years and the cost pressure is so intense but the standards can’t drop. Hospitals and medical care are the best they have ever been, but that. comes at a very high cost that is almost unsustainable. You couldn’t pay me enough to be a CEO right now, except at a rural critical access hospital where they generally don’t have to worry so much about making ends meet.
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Two of my nurse friends have commented on the way patient care and “business” conflict. How do you get a patient to do what they don’t want to do (like get up and walk shortly after a c section) and also get star ratings from the same patient for great care. Throw insurance companies into the mix and it sounds like a mess i don’t want to be in.
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Last Friday 8/20 on Real Time w/ Bill Mahr he had a guest on that brought up how our hospitals operate… Did you see that? There isn’t a link I can share. But he talked about hospitals being run like the airlines… over booked, for profit…something something… over my head stuff. AND I’m not trying to start anything. Your comment reminded me.
… and I am one of those ppl that can’t get a much needed surgery due to covid. Our local hospitals shut down all elective surgery (I’m not electing it ;)) over a month ago.
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You are not alone. So sorry!
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Yup! Transplant, not native. Highly recommend our crazy little rock in the Atlantic. I think we’re even getting a couple Disney cruises back next year.
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Awesome! I was just looking at cruises this weekend. Thinking RC out of NJ in spring 2023 possibly. I’m hesitant to book the Disney ones bc they are during hurricane season.
I’m sorry about your surgery. Somehow this whole situation seems much worse now than it was during the spikes last year since these, by and large, are preventable.
The vast majority of American hospitals are community-based non-profit. They actually have to demonstrate, to the government, that they provide charity care and community benefit at least as valuable as the tax breaks they receive. Then there are a few, usually large, public hospitals. There aren’t that many truly for-profit ventures.
I can see why Maher might think that it’s profit-driven, though. Someone is going to get overcharged for one thing to pay for some one or something that does not pay enough. Huge parts of the population (Medicare, Medicaid) have insurance that doesn’t pay the cost of care. Whole service lines, like peds and general medicine are subsidized. All the other conditions, insurances and procedures therefore have to get milked for every penny. It can definitely come across as greedy.
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he is opinionated 
It was his guest. Thank you for the clarification and detail! I know when I see my insurance EOB I’m always surprised. I have Tricare which is basically medicare (IMO) and it pays poorly.
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Well, then there is the difference between what some doctors make vs, others. All based more or less on historical fees, not really any relevant differences at similar educational levels. Because DH and I know this, we tease each other about it from time to time
DH: A trained monkey can do what you do.
Me: Maybe, but I jitter and jabber all the way to the bank.
Also I have a list of specialty-specific doctor jokes that are fun to tease friends with. The whole system is kind of absurd when you start picking it apart.
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My community is at high transmission now. We’ve been very cautious. Remote leaning for our Kindergartner last school year while our 3 year old stayed home. We don’t go inside stores, restaurants or other people’s houses.
We are, however, sending our kids to in-person 1st grade and pre-K this year. DW and I have been debating extracurricular activities. I would prefer none, but DW thinks they are important. It looks like we are going to compromise and do soccer because it is outside (but inside a gym if weather is bad). Masks optional outside, but masks will be required when they are in the gym.
I can understand going either way on this. It is tough.
Very sad that the decision of whether to sign child up for soccer has become an agonizing choice, but that is where we are at.
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The risk level will almost entirely depend on the protocols and how committed the coaches and other participants/families are to following them.
We let DS17 (vaccinated in April) do soccer last year and will let him do it again this year. But we’re 90% sure that’s how Covid got into our house in January. In early December, we saw that the protocols weren’t being followed so we made the hard choice to let him continue but basically cut off all other contacts so we would break the chain of transmission, and it would dead-end at our house if he caught it. We could tell other families didn’t care if protocols were followed or not, so we knew it would be a hard battle to win. (He did the cross country season prior to soccer, and they followed protocols a lot more closely.)
We let him ride the team bus to a couple of games because they made it challenging not to. Masking was mandatory on the bus but sounds like compliance wasn’t great. But they were also sitting shoulder to shoulder on the bench and interacting at practices like Covid isn’t a thing. So we’re not sure which circumstance led to him catching it.
It wasn’t as critical an activity for our DS11 twins, so we are keeping them out at least until they are vaccinated. We decided that was easier mentally than pulling them out if protocols aren’t being followed.
There is a lot of spread potential here, so if you plan to skip those activities, make sure you’re prepared for the extreme FOMO angst. (Also fundraiser activities.)
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Also, I got my third Moderna shot today.
Nothing happened. I suppose that’s a sign that I needed to get it.
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What were you expecting to happen? Or rather, what could/should happen?
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What about mixing vaccines for the booster? I’ll be eligible for my booster in Nov
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I was expecting some type of reaction. In a way, antibodies to COVID are not too dissimilar to an allergic reaction. Someone being challenged with a protein the third time around might be expected to have some mild redness or swelling- if they have lots of antibodies. But I probably don’t- which is exactly why I had to be challenged with it one more time.
But, t-cell reactions are also important, and my t-cells tend to over-react, but that takes a day or so. I may have an arm looking like a sausage by tomorrow.
I don’t know. For me, it makes sense to challenge my immune system again with the exact same product in order to get some type of antibodies (see above). For people with intact immune systems, it may make sense to try to broaden their immunity by using a different vaccine.
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I’m ready for my booster…
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After I read how truly horrible my specific medication was in suppressing antibody production, I was, too, let me tell you!
Here’s a little factoid to indicate just how strong these medications can be:
From the most recent Medical Letter:
2.7%. of the population falls under the third dose guidelines (technically, for these people they aren’t boosters), but they make up 40 to 44% of patients hospitalized with breakthrough COVID infections.
Yikes. I mean, I’m walking around feeling pretty normal and really I’m just a ticking time bomb with delta around.
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Be careful … with WDW’s new cost saving measures, they may see your arm and put it on the dining plan menu.
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