(Snippets from the frontline)
COVID-19/BLM: Re-opening hospitals
Your loved one is ill. They have COVID-19, but they are hospitalized with minimal communication. Yet you want to ask questions, know their condition, and be at their bedside.
Six months into this pandemic we have utilized cell phones, FaceTime, Skype, and other modalities successfully. But when a patient is extremely ill and disabled, there is no better medical treatment than family members holding their hand.
Hospital census has decreased, and healthcare personnel are being laid off. One reason is fear of exposure to COVID-19, and the other is hesitancy knowing there is no visitation by family or loved ones.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I have not seen documented transmission of the coronavirus to hospitalized non-COVID-19 patients come up on the radar screen. Why? Because of strict sterile techniques used by hospitals.
But, there is no talk in the media or government of re-opening hospitals. This can be done sterilely and sequentially starting with ICU patients who are critically ill, then those with memory problems or paralysis.
Re-opening communities must include hospitals, as patients humanely need loved ones to hold their hand.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
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