Doctors and nurses have been working overtime for months as the coronavirus pandemic has kept hospitals operating at maximum capacity. Dr. Mark Horne, President of the Mississippi State Medical Association, says many healthcare workers are exhausted and overworked, and without any backup on the horizon patients may not receive the same standard of care. "The nurses will probably be stuck doing only those things that they absolutely must do in order to save people's lives," says Dr. Horne. "So people may be accustomed to a certain level of care where "Hey, can you move this pillow or do this for me to make me more comfortable," and the answer maybe there's nobody to come around and do it."
Dr. Horne says there's not enough trained staff to hire in the state, and it would take too long to properly train new ones. "It takes years for those people to gain their education and become skilled at doing that. And there's absolutely no way to solve the staffing problems in the time frame that will be required for this surge. It can not be done."
Some healthcare professionals are leaving the state for higher wages. Richard Roberson [check pronunciation], with the Mississippi Hospital Association, says most in-state hospitals can't match higher wages after collectively losing around $11 million dollars in 2019 because of unpaid hospital bills. "The combination of the high level of uncompensated care that hospitals were already shouldering, and then the cutting of elective surgeries, it makes it really challenging for those hospitals to continue to have the financial resources to survive," says Roberson.
Experts say the only way to help hospitals is to reduce transmission of the coronavirus by social distancing and wearing a mask.
