The Wall Street Journal revealed a deadly lapse in the nation’s COVID-19 response: The U.S. hospital industry — warned for years about the need to prepare for a pandemic — chose to instead to cut costs and boost profits by slashing inventory of all key medical supplies, using software to winnow stocks of protective gear hoping to replenish it as needed. The industry also bungled a chance to create technology to streamline emergency patient transfers. The WSJ showed how this key element of the medical-industrial complex acted in its own interest, and didn’t set aside resources that would have better prepared America for the pandemic. Hospitals, as much as the government, ignored warnings of shortages of protective gear that handicapped the struggle against the virus and continue today.
The Journal exclusively revealed
–The profit calculus hospitals made in ignoring preparedness lessons after the swine-flu pandemic in 2009, and how they ignored calls for 15 years to automate hospital transfers.
–How the nation’s health systems have kept a tight rein on employee numbers and expanded outpatient care, helping their finances but making them less prepared for a medical crisis.
–How hospitals made improper transfers of sick patients between hospitals, and turned away COVID-19 patients because of insurance reasons.
–How hospitals often mixed infected patients with the uninfected early on, and the virus spread to non-COVID-19 units.
–How hospitals inadequately planned, adding hundreds of intensive-care beds but not always enough trained staff, leading to improper treatments and overlooked patients dying alone.
–How hospitals over-relied on government sources for key equipment, including ventilators.
–How hospitals didn’t always provide adequate supplies of critical resources including oxygen, vital-signs monitors and dialysis machines.
–How hospitals provided staff with insufficient protective equipment and testing.
–How hospitals failed to keep their medical staff safe from being infected by COVID-19 patients.