Impact of COVID-19 on Health Systems

As we all know COVID-19 has taken a toll on all of our lives by creating restrictions and social distancing. We must stay six feet away from each other and it is crazy to know that there are patients in beds crowded in hallways in hospitals. This is putting healthcare professionals at risk, including nurses, pharmacists, and physicians. Another big issue was the shortage of masks maximizing the risk of exposure to our essential health care professionals. I recall reading the other day that hundreds of workers at a health system in the metro-Detroit area testing positive for the corona virus. It makes me wonder if is there is better plan that can be implemented to minimize risk of exposure.

Being that there is such an increasing demand to treat these patients, many physicians and nurses have been pulled from their areas of speciality. For example, one of my cousins is an ophthalmologist, while the other is an orthopedic surgeon. Both are working alongside the COVID-19 patients and have cancelled non-essential appointments in their area of specialty. They even mentioned that it is difficult being that they have limited amount of masks, which speaks for itself. All in all, it must be hard for the people sitting at home during this situation, but it is even harder for those putting themselves at risk to help others during this pandemic. For that I am grateful.



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