Hospitals Forced to Limit Capacity With Staff Calling Out Sick
https://www.newsmax.com/us/nurses-shorta.../10/id/1051688/
A soldier transports a patient at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts on Dec. 30, 2021.
By Eric Mack | Monday, 10 January 2022 07:56 AM


The escalating COVID-19 pandemic under the highly contagious omicron variant has had nurses calling out sick, forcing hospitals to limit their capacity and leaving beds empty because there is not enough staff to deliver care.

Mass General Brigham Hospital was forced to keep 83 beds empty Friday because of staffing shortages, University Hospital in Ohio cut 16% of its intensive-care capacity, and Dallas' Parkland Health & Hospital System had to shut off 30 of its 900 beds with more than 500 staff out sick in one day recently, The Wall Street Journal reported.

"It's definitely a brutal situation," Parkland's Dr. Joseph Chang told the paper.

Hospitals short staffed have decisions to make and limiting capacity is a last-resort to make sure those most in need of care have access to the staffing required to treat them.-- excerpt, rest at link above --