April 6, 2020 / PATTI NEIGHMOND
As many cities and regions of the country brace for a surge of coronavirus patients over the next few weeks, hospitals are scrambling to get ready. The increase in costs to convert beds, buy equipment and increase staffing time in order to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients is adding up at a time when revenues are down.
And the resources they have to turn to may vary, depending on the demographics of the patients they serve.
“We are very concerned,” says Dr. Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. “We are doing everything we can to prepare.”
Harbor-UCLA is a public hospital, and the majority of its patients are low-income: about 65% are on Medicaid, 15% are on Medicare, only 10% have private insurance and the rest are uninsured, including many undocumented immigrants.
Mahajan says the hospital plans to triple the number of ICU beds available to treat critically ill patients. It normally has 450 beds including 44 ICU beds.
