STAY HEALTHY! You may not find a doctor or nurse to care for you!
Imagine coming out of a sterile surgical procedure to learn that across the hall, there were emergency patients being treated for various ailments. Some may have an infection, some a kidney stone, some possibly may have Covid. This is not happening in a third world country. This is here in the US. This weekend, during a middle-of-the-night surgery I needed to perform, I was shocked to learn that as many as half of the operating room recovery beds are often filled with overflow emergency room patients. This is not a small rural hospital. It has 30 operating rooms. It has a recently renovated ER with over 75 beds! It has a few hundred in patient beds. And they are often all filled. And they are starting to be filled with Covid patients once again.
Worldwide, there is a shortage of healthcare workers at all levels. Doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists not to mention EMS and pharmacy staff. This pre-existed the pandemic, but Covid has accelerated early retirement as well as burnout. This is partly why there has been an explosion of walk-in clinics at pharmacies and urgent care facilities. With the recent announcement by pharmacy giant CVS that they are planning to close over 900 stores in the US, the shortage will continue to worsen. In my area, 2 local hospitals will be closing in the new year, unable to keep up with patient volume, along with reduced reimbursement. Healthcare is just too expensive. Too many sick people. Too much pressure on the healthcare system to see more, document more with less.
In the world, the US is #1 in 3 particularly important health metrics. Obesity, rates of chronic disease and healthcare costs. We are #1 in a variety of other not-so prestigious things like number of guns, school shootings and per capita incarceration. 75% of Americans are overweight or obese (over half of them), and we know this is the #1 risk factor for contracting and having a severe bout of Covid. 20% of kids are obese. 30% of Americans are diabetic or prediabetic with an estimated 50% more having underlying insulin resistance. 40% of Americans are on a statin essentially because of a poor diet. Only a tiny fraction of them have a true genetic form of elevated cholesterol. It is not a pretty picture.
The bottom line? Get your butt in shape so that you don’t need to go to the doctor or ER. Furthermore, get vaccinated and boosted against this virus and behave in a way which minimizes exposure like wearing a mask and avoiding crowds so you don’t get Covid.
Stay Safe and Be Well
AC