I understand how tele or stepdown gets full and doesn't have any beds. I'm just not buying that's what's going on in Florida.I still believe from what I have read that these numbers were being skewed to make the numbers look lower.
Hospitals are trying to segregate COVID patients. That’s exactly what’s going on, everywhere. Whether you “buy it” or not. You keep COVID patients in the same place because moving them means more chances of exposure and more PPE use.
1.More staff taking care of pts - receiving and sending staff
2. More positive patients in halls during transfer.
3. More environmental services staff cleaning COVID rooms.
4. and. Most hospitals only have so many negative airflow rooms anyway.
5. The only way to have lower risk areas for non-COVID patients is to segregate higher risk patients together.
I point out that the process to charge for the right level of care doesn’t depend on location, so COVID pts can be billed correctly no matter where they are. That’s not fraud.
There are plenty of reasons why hospitals are trying to keep their COVID pts together. I always find the best rationale in a hospital comes down to this: “How would I want my Momma treated?”
If my Momma was in the hospital for an appendectomy, would I want her nurse to be donning and doffing PPE gear for 3 positive COVID patients in addition to caring for her? Or, would I want the hospital to have a few “COVID units”?
I understand that you’re making an argument that the numbers are being cooked. But your actual argument is that it makes no sense (and might even be fraud) for hospitals to keep COVID pts together and not move them all through the hospital when it can be avoided. I’m saying: that’s exactly what hospitals are doing and it makes perfect sense (and it isn’t fraud).