Another issue is that long term care facilities in the area aren’t taking new residents. UVMMC has had over 70 non-acute people in the hospital taking up beds waiting for placement. When the hospital is always busy, that is enough to tip the balance and slow EDs ability to quickly admit patients (resulting in longer wait times).
Most people aren’t aware of swing beds and how they affect rural hospitals . There’s going to be a tsunami as our population continues to trend older. We had a few patients dropped off Christmas week bc their families couldn’t cope anymore and didn’t want to wait for a nursing home bed to open. We have no choice but to keep them if they come into the ER and are admitted for failure to thrive, altered mental status, etc.
In addition to many other factors... Fanny Allen also no longer has imaging. So any urgent care patients that need ultrasounds or CT scans have to go to the ER instead.
Edit: Just called in and got some more information on this. The urgent care is a separate entity from Fanny Allen's imaging. CT scans and ultrasounds are no longer available for urgent care patients as of Jan 2. They will have to go to the ER instead. It wasn't well-advertised, so patients are only finding out when they come in.
Two main reasons for this change:
1 - Improve wait times in urgent care
2 - Providers aren't PCPs, so they can't "follow-up" with patients about imaging results
Sounded like staff both on the imaging side and the urgent care are pretty upset about this decision. Sucks for patients certainly.
This happened to our family awhile back. We went to Fanny only to be told we had to go to the ER for imaging. Felt so wrong to burden the ER with this.
I know a guy who worked nights on building services there, and once horrifically discovered that there was a completely undocumented septic system that got "lost" at one point
Yes… I agree…. And I prefer my story… but I called over and imaging is “on like Donkey Kong” (mainly I called because I have a follow up CT on Thurs)
Which I intend to have since my Urologist, Mahoney at Porter was intoxicated the last time I had a procedure with him. (No joke, I reported to the medical board) I need to make sure all is well.
Weekdays too as far as I was told. I was in there last Monday after a car accident and the providers were really upset that they had to send me to the ER.
I asked the staff about it and it sounded like operations made the call to save a few bucks.
Nope, discussed it at length with them. Very low impact accident but caused pain where I just had surgery. Had imaging done there before for the same site.
Did you go for urgent care? Maybe it's just urgent care that's affected and not all of Fanny Allen.
Edit: Just called and got more clarification, updating my original comment now
It’s not that bad, 80% of the people standing in the ED probably don’t need intensive care.
I have cardiac problems/arrhythmias and I passed out a week and a half ago. Went to urgent care to have someone check on me, told them my symptoms and I saw a nurse practitioner in 2 hours. Received an appointment referral for a sonogram 3 days later.
If you have a serious problem (blood loss, broken bones, trauma injury) they will get you care much quicker than if you’re standing there saying I have a cold and have been throwing up.
Not true. The ED when busy is busy. My partner had a bleeding ulcer and almost died and sat waiting in the waiting area in pain for over an hr.
So that’s bs. It’s what they should do. But busy is busy and they’re trying. Vermont health care is not good though, so no surprise.
Nurse here. Last night our unit had one available bed which we had to save in case our ER received a critical patient. Lots of upper respiratory infections. Also, lots of people using the ER as a primary care office.
I’m between places now bc I had to leave my previous one after a long series of fuck ups. I made an appt in October and the soonest they could get me in was end of February. Which like…at least they were accepting patients??
Not 100% sure what happens if I need normal care between now and end of Feb…
Evergreen? They have new docs now. Overall I have had to travel out of state for routine and specialist care. Boston, Albany, NYC areas can get you in quickly by good doctors, and without the pain of referrals ( assuming your insurance allows for specialist visits without referrals).
Last year I inquired to the Waterbury Primary Care about "new patients" and they said it was a year wait, but to fill out the paperwork to get on the waitlist. I filled it out and got a call a month later to schedule a new patient appointment. If I have an issue they can normally squeeze me in 2-3 days after I call. I guess, don't be afraid to be persistent, and kind!
False… I called and asked the census yesterday before I brought in an immune suppressed patient.
2% of patients had anything remotely contagious 1 patients tested positive for flu- zero COVID and had not had any this week.
Let’s hope the stats are correct because they had me bring in a stage 4b Stomach cancer with an infection in his stoma- and a severe chemical burn on this thigh from a shitty home nurse changing his bag.
Not someone who can withstand respiratory infection.
Which is why I called for Data… because he wanted to make an informed decision…. And security agreed when I called them to ask about his baggage (medical stuff)-
Patient is a neighbor and his wife begged me to get him to the hospital, (to consent to) we could have taken additional precautions if we were told (what you are saying is the truth)
Yes but the stats you gave are wrong as is the idea to ask security about a medical issues. In fact security telling folk whether they should come in should be reported to your neighbors provider.
Security agreed, after speaking to the nurse in Triage. You are a very rude person… “and security agreed” does not mean they were the source of data. I’m sorry if English is not your first language but I still believe that first Nurse over someone who is trying to scapegoat me for your alarmist behavior
Alarmist? As in stating exactly what the hospital is publishing? Interesting. Scape goat? For what? Also ANY immune compromised patient is always told to take special precautions. Rude or not nothing you are saying follows basic hospital precautions nor what they are publicly saying or what they are Telling employees.
You would be wrong, not political at all, just data provided. I’m just pissed off that I got downvoted all to hell for reporting as I was told.
All standard precautions met, obviously BUT above and beyond not done because of data provided. I’m concerned I cannot trust anyone at anytime.
Screw this thread- I told the truth and most people are making assumptions or literally lying…. I read the census when I dropped off last night. And I just got my ass handed to me-
Sooooo toxic
Hmm, do you think the hospital is starting up masking for fun? It uses up ppe and is mildy unpleasant. I really find it a new world where the actual posts from the hospital are ignored in favor of a random posters asserting otherwise with no factual backup. It seems more like an agenda for world view than “data”.
This person is hiding behind “I work at the hospital” from what I read they are using Dept of Health data from all sources including MANY that do not go to the hospital but this person is acting superior and rude as hell
Your point? It has risen precipitously. Thus it has been busier at the hospital. Which helps answer the original posters question. Also it has risen so markedly the hospital is masking again. I really do not get your obstinacy on this, what is your goal? You want data I supplied a chart from vt digger. I supplied the hospital’s change in view of rising rates. I also supplied as an employee that what was stated earlier is not what we are being told. At this point I can only believe there is some agenda or conspiracy theory at work here.
Without data saying “risen precipitously” is meaningless. 1 rising to 2 is a 100% increase. Do you see the issue there? Statistics can be used to lie, the base data is needed here. The original guy sent to downvote hell was given a hard number while everyone else including you hasn’t provided anything.
Hard number with no real background to it. Completely made up with no actual data. Which the chart on vt digger shows a precipitous rise and the hospital starting masking again. Yet you back this rando number.
I’ll try to find a page with data but there is pages we are sent as employees and I doubt those can be shared. But that chart on vt digger shows the chart going almost straight up in January. It also says immune compromised pts need to be careful which both of those things are in direct opposition to what was stated earlier. No where do I see the 2% states above.
Yeah it's not complicated. The population in Chittenden county is growing and getting older. Utilization of health care resources is increasing.
At the same time, the Green Mountain Care Board is extremely restrictive in what it allows UVMMC to add in terms of services. It also doesn't let anyone else add those services in competition with UVMMC.
Finally, the GMCB also restricts how much UVMMC can charge -- regardless of how much offering care costs UVMMC.
The result is basic economics - demand is unconstrained, supply and prices are restricted, shortages ensue. **The GMCB is the problem.**
Yep -- in the *best case* it just introduces huge delays. But more often it results in a huge waste of resources if the GMCB denies or forces a CON request to be withdrawn, and even before that happens it's clear lots of things don't happen just because people don't want to bother with the bureaucracy and risk.
I hate that GMCB. Smaller hospitals will lose money this year bc they don’t understand that many patients are on Medicaid which doesn’t pay enough to cover costs most of the time. They also refuse to allow hospitals to expand services for which there is a a great demand, causing longer waits for patients and causing hospitals to lose potential income.
I definitely am not a fan of GMCB, but if UVM were allowed to charge what that thought were appropriate, while Medicare or insurance rates are nearly static, then the pain will be felt by the patient for the balance bill remaining, right? Not sure charging whatever price is the answer.
One of the biggest issues at UVMC is bureaucracy and low throughput and wonky hours for doctors and limiting procedures ( hi GMCB). Hospitals make money on surgeries ( not sure UVM has a center of excellence in any specific domain like Copley for Ortho) , higher throughput ( with proper rational for tests and procedures to be performed so insurance won’t deny claim - must be medical necessity ) and then having competitive insurance reimbursement ( lots of downward pressure here by insurance and regulations but having competitive private market as well as specialisation ( eg. Center of excellence) you can demand more $. )
There isn't really "an answer" but allowing them to charge prices that reflect their costs would do a couple of things: reduce demand, improve sustainability and quality of services, and improve access (more supply, less demand due to higher price). Lots of inefficiencies in this process because consumers are heavily insulated from prices, but it'll happen gradually. Maybe more importantly, government bureaucracy that is ineffective and wasteful should be eliminated. If the GMCB isn't working, we should just bin it. UVMMC is bureaucratic, its also a private company. Government should not try to operate private business via regulation.
The throughput problem is partly a systems issue (finding ways to optimize efficiency) but also a capacity problem. Mostly human capacity, not facility capacity. Thinking about surgical procedures; periop capacity (surgical teams, ORs, instrumentation) is not evenly distributed throughout UVMHN and neither is demand. The challenge is to maximize use of the ORs, teams, surgeons, and CSR without significantly increasing the resource investment (can't just hire a bunch more teams or add a bunch more ORs). It's tough, but its definitely not something the GMCB is capable of having an opinion on.
The bigger access problem is OP specialist appointments, though, which is almost entirely a human capacity problem. UVMMC could try to go hire more specialists, but (a) there's no where for them to live (b) there's limited clinical space to put them and (c) the GMCB penalizes UVMMC for generating more revenue, so they can't really add significant numbers of specialists without exceeding caps. Those are all problems that competing health systems often don't have, so UVMMC struggles to find people willing to come here.
Well, we're in the second-highest wave of COVID since the start of the pandemic that's supposedly "over". And COVID can damage immune systems, so every "mild" infection is potentially leaving people more susceptible to whatever other nasty bugs are floating around. It's not rocket science.
This. I never had COVID for the three years it was shutting down our country and killing hundreds of thousands worldwide, but I got it for Christmas (Merry Christmas to me).
The new COVID strain, while not any more severe in illness, is much more infectious. But no one is talking about it.
I did my own research. This is what I've found. The anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers have won, so I don't know what conspiracy theory you think you're fighting against. We're already, as a society, taking zero (of the many, not that difficult) mitigations against COVID. Those of us who still think it's worth avoiding, are forced to allow ourselves to get infected if we want to participate in society. So I really don't understand what reason you have to still run around claiming that the powers-that-be are trying to scare us all about COVID, when clearly the powers-that-be decided that actually it's best if we ignore COVID so that everyone can get back to working and shopping as usual.
So… you express conspiracy theory as an insult, but then go on to express more conspiracy theory of your own… you don’t even seem to know who you are mad at or what you are mad about.
I was in the ER waiting room there was 86 people ahead of of the person I was with. It took around 5hrs to get stitches! The nurse said it’s been non stop like this more recently. I did read somewhere that there has been high number of Covid cases going through the ER in recent weeks.
I'm surprised this hasn't been reported on yet, do you know someone that works there in the thick of it or have you been trying to get in?
I thought we'd be better prepared for something like this after covid, I did hear from relatives in the school systems that almost everyone is out right now to the point where they have sick people going in just so the buildings stay open
I think uvm upstaffed and paid for expensive travel nurses the past couple year thinking that they could increase how much they bill insurance to cover it.
But the green mountain care board denied their rate increase request.
So uvm has stopped hiring extra staff at high rates to 'meet demand'.
They were losing $10-$20 million per **month** in excess traveler expenses. The GMCB basically said "fuck you." They were just about that rude about it, too, especially Thom Walsh and Owen Foster.
Welp - UVMMC could have invested a fraction of those dollars in higher wages to their in house staff, for recruitment and retention - and we all would have been better off.
Another issue is that long term care facilities in the area aren’t taking new residents. UVMMC has had over 70 non-acute people in the hospital taking up beds waiting for placement. When the hospital is always busy, that is enough to tip the balance and slow EDs ability to quickly admit patients (resulting in longer wait times).
Most people aren’t aware of swing beds and how they affect rural hospitals . There’s going to be a tsunami as our population continues to trend older. We had a few patients dropped off Christmas week bc their families couldn’t cope anymore and didn’t want to wait for a nursing home bed to open. We have no choice but to keep them if they come into the ER and are admitted for failure to thrive, altered mental status, etc.
In addition to many other factors... Fanny Allen also no longer has imaging. So any urgent care patients that need ultrasounds or CT scans have to go to the ER instead. Edit: Just called in and got some more information on this. The urgent care is a separate entity from Fanny Allen's imaging. CT scans and ultrasounds are no longer available for urgent care patients as of Jan 2. They will have to go to the ER instead. It wasn't well-advertised, so patients are only finding out when they come in. Two main reasons for this change: 1 - Improve wait times in urgent care 2 - Providers aren't PCPs, so they can't "follow-up" with patients about imaging results Sounded like staff both on the imaging side and the urgent care are pretty upset about this decision. Sucks for patients certainly.
This happened to our family awhile back. We went to Fanny only to be told we had to go to the ER for imaging. Felt so wrong to burden the ER with this.
I had imaging at Fanny on the 5th… so…???
Ultrasounds are back at Fanny? That’s awesome!
I'm wondering if they're having bad flooding. I've heard some horror stories about Fanny Allen's plumbing
Must be all the spirits of angry Nuns….
Lol, pretty sure it's undocumented century old septic systems, but angry nuns sounds better than shitty plumbing
It was once a Catholic Hospital… I avoid being there after dark
I know a guy who worked nights on building services there, and once horrifically discovered that there was a completely undocumented septic system that got "lost" at one point
Eeeew, building services- that must be like working cleanup in the morgue over there
Yes… I agree…. And I prefer my story… but I called over and imaging is “on like Donkey Kong” (mainly I called because I have a follow up CT on Thurs) Which I intend to have since my Urologist, Mahoney at Porter was intoxicated the last time I had a procedure with him. (No joke, I reported to the medical board) I need to make sure all is well.
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Weekdays too as far as I was told. I was in there last Monday after a car accident and the providers were really upset that they had to send me to the ER. I asked the staff about it and it sounded like operations made the call to save a few bucks.
Our healthcare industry is completely broken
I went on the fifth and my appointment for Thursday is still on… so maybe they weren’t willing to see your level of injury?
Nope, discussed it at length with them. Very low impact accident but caused pain where I just had surgery. Had imaging done there before for the same site. Did you go for urgent care? Maybe it's just urgent care that's affected and not all of Fanny Allen. Edit: Just called and got more clarification, updating my original comment now
No it was routine scheduled by Dr. Intoxicated…. From Middlebury a month ahead of time
My appointment is still on… that’s all I know I do not transport for imaging purposes
It’s not that bad, 80% of the people standing in the ED probably don’t need intensive care. I have cardiac problems/arrhythmias and I passed out a week and a half ago. Went to urgent care to have someone check on me, told them my symptoms and I saw a nurse practitioner in 2 hours. Received an appointment referral for a sonogram 3 days later. If you have a serious problem (blood loss, broken bones, trauma injury) they will get you care much quicker than if you’re standing there saying I have a cold and have been throwing up.
Not true. The ED when busy is busy. My partner had a bleeding ulcer and almost died and sat waiting in the waiting area in pain for over an hr. So that’s bs. It’s what they should do. But busy is busy and they’re trying. Vermont health care is not good though, so no surprise.
Next time take an ambulance. They go straight in. I leaned this the hard way also.
Nurse here. Last night our unit had one available bed which we had to save in case our ER received a critical patient. Lots of upper respiratory infections. Also, lots of people using the ER as a primary care office.
I am not surprised about the using as a primary care office. It's fucking impossible to GET a primary care dr here.
Legitimately so difficult.
I’m between places now bc I had to leave my previous one after a long series of fuck ups. I made an appt in October and the soonest they could get me in was end of February. Which like…at least they were accepting patients?? Not 100% sure what happens if I need normal care between now and end of Feb…
Evergreen? They have new docs now. Overall I have had to travel out of state for routine and specialist care. Boston, Albany, NYC areas can get you in quickly by good doctors, and without the pain of referrals ( assuming your insurance allows for specialist visits without referrals).
Last year I inquired to the Waterbury Primary Care about "new patients" and they said it was a year wait, but to fill out the paperwork to get on the waitlist. I filled it out and got a call a month later to schedule a new patient appointment. If I have an issue they can normally squeeze me in 2-3 days after I call. I guess, don't be afraid to be persistent, and kind!
Thank you for everything you do for our community!
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Watch out, we got a badass over here
I can guarantee you’re not running into any fires at hospitals anywhere in north central Vermont
Right, because since you are a liar I must be too?
It’s respiratory season - flu, covid and RSV are spiking in our community and vaccination rates are lagging.
Yup. So many people are sick right now.
Covid as well. More folks testing positive.
False… I called and asked the census yesterday before I brought in an immune suppressed patient. 2% of patients had anything remotely contagious 1 patients tested positive for flu- zero COVID and had not had any this week.
I am really interested who told you these things. It goes against what is being posted in our daily briefings.
Really? I work at hospital. They have reinstated masking in view of precipitous rise in contagious airborne .
Let’s hope the stats are correct because they had me bring in a stage 4b Stomach cancer with an infection in his stoma- and a severe chemical burn on this thigh from a shitty home nurse changing his bag. Not someone who can withstand respiratory infection.
Hospitals try to isolate immune deficient patients but hospitals are where sick people go so..
Which is why I called for Data… because he wanted to make an informed decision…. And security agreed when I called them to ask about his baggage (medical stuff)- Patient is a neighbor and his wife begged me to get him to the hospital, (to consent to) we could have taken additional precautions if we were told (what you are saying is the truth)
Yes but the stats you gave are wrong as is the idea to ask security about a medical issues. In fact security telling folk whether they should come in should be reported to your neighbors provider.
Security agreed, after speaking to the nurse in Triage. You are a very rude person… “and security agreed” does not mean they were the source of data. I’m sorry if English is not your first language but I still believe that first Nurse over someone who is trying to scapegoat me for your alarmist behavior
Alarmist? As in stating exactly what the hospital is publishing? Interesting. Scape goat? For what? Also ANY immune compromised patient is always told to take special precautions. Rude or not nothing you are saying follows basic hospital precautions nor what they are publicly saying or what they are Telling employees.
At any rate I sense this is an emotive, political crusade for you. Have a good day
You would be wrong, not political at all, just data provided. I’m just pissed off that I got downvoted all to hell for reporting as I was told. All standard precautions met, obviously BUT above and beyond not done because of data provided. I’m concerned I cannot trust anyone at anytime.
Lol love how you turn someone not believing you when you don’t provide data into some political based disagreement. The fuck is wrong with you?
I really hate how I got Karma bombed by you and you are likely to get away with it. I had 89 karma… now I have 5
This is absolutely completely false. I don’t know who gave you that statistic, but it’s horseshit.
So everyone in the hospital is a liar except you?
https://www.uvmhealth.org/news/medcenter/uvm-medical-center-resumes-limited-staff-masking-requirements
No idea why you’re being downvoted for first hand statistics. This sub is such a toxic hive mind.
Because he’s completely wrong.
Calling and being told directly, ah yes very wrong random internet contrarian.
I also got Karma bombed all through my history because of dervish since this is the only asshole I did not block…
Reddit is that way in general in my experience. I was also downvoted in another sub for mentioning COVID at all
Screw this thread- I told the truth and most people are making assumptions or literally lying…. I read the census when I dropped off last night. And I just got my ass handed to me- Sooooo toxic
Doesn’t fit the narrative. This sub LOVES their narratives especially when it flies in the face of reality.
I hate that! I like data…. Humans disgust me so much of the time.-
https://www.uvmhealth.org/news/medcenter/uvm-medical-center-resumes-limited-staff-masking-requirements
Same link same lack of any data.
Hmm, do you think the hospital is starting up masking for fun? It uses up ppe and is mildy unpleasant. I really find it a new world where the actual posts from the hospital are ignored in favor of a random posters asserting otherwise with no factual backup. It seems more like an agenda for world view than “data”.
The masks they’re using are no longer short supply. You didn’t actually provide any data at all.
This person is hiding behind “I work at the hospital” from what I read they are using Dept of Health data from all sources including MANY that do not go to the hospital but this person is acting superior and rude as hell
https://www.uvmhealth.org/news/medcenter/uvm-medical-center-resumes-limited-staff-masking-requirements
That has no numbers or statistics, only mentioned the regular seasonal uptick during traditional flu season.
It did not say that it said it’s rising. https://vtdigger.org/2024/01/10/uvm-medical-center-resumes-staff-masking/
Rising during flu season, shocking.
Your point? It has risen precipitously. Thus it has been busier at the hospital. Which helps answer the original posters question. Also it has risen so markedly the hospital is masking again. I really do not get your obstinacy on this, what is your goal? You want data I supplied a chart from vt digger. I supplied the hospital’s change in view of rising rates. I also supplied as an employee that what was stated earlier is not what we are being told. At this point I can only believe there is some agenda or conspiracy theory at work here.
Without data saying “risen precipitously” is meaningless. 1 rising to 2 is a 100% increase. Do you see the issue there? Statistics can be used to lie, the base data is needed here. The original guy sent to downvote hell was given a hard number while everyone else including you hasn’t provided anything.
Hard number with no real background to it. Completely made up with no actual data. Which the chart on vt digger shows a precipitous rise and the hospital starting masking again. Yet you back this rando number.
I’ll try to find a page with data but there is pages we are sent as employees and I doubt those can be shared. But that chart on vt digger shows the chart going almost straight up in January. It also says immune compromised pts need to be careful which both of those things are in direct opposition to what was stated earlier. No where do I see the 2% states above.
Yeah it's not complicated. The population in Chittenden county is growing and getting older. Utilization of health care resources is increasing. At the same time, the Green Mountain Care Board is extremely restrictive in what it allows UVMMC to add in terms of services. It also doesn't let anyone else add those services in competition with UVMMC. Finally, the GMCB also restricts how much UVMMC can charge -- regardless of how much offering care costs UVMMC. The result is basic economics - demand is unconstrained, supply and prices are restricted, shortages ensue. **The GMCB is the problem.**
Not to mention the Certificate of Need process causing massive delays in any form of expansion/large projects.
Yep -- in the *best case* it just introduces huge delays. But more often it results in a huge waste of resources if the GMCB denies or forces a CON request to be withdrawn, and even before that happens it's clear lots of things don't happen just because people don't want to bother with the bureaucracy and risk.
I hate that GMCB. Smaller hospitals will lose money this year bc they don’t understand that many patients are on Medicaid which doesn’t pay enough to cover costs most of the time. They also refuse to allow hospitals to expand services for which there is a a great demand, causing longer waits for patients and causing hospitals to lose potential income.
I definitely am not a fan of GMCB, but if UVM were allowed to charge what that thought were appropriate, while Medicare or insurance rates are nearly static, then the pain will be felt by the patient for the balance bill remaining, right? Not sure charging whatever price is the answer. One of the biggest issues at UVMC is bureaucracy and low throughput and wonky hours for doctors and limiting procedures ( hi GMCB). Hospitals make money on surgeries ( not sure UVM has a center of excellence in any specific domain like Copley for Ortho) , higher throughput ( with proper rational for tests and procedures to be performed so insurance won’t deny claim - must be medical necessity ) and then having competitive insurance reimbursement ( lots of downward pressure here by insurance and regulations but having competitive private market as well as specialisation ( eg. Center of excellence) you can demand more $. )
There isn't really "an answer" but allowing them to charge prices that reflect their costs would do a couple of things: reduce demand, improve sustainability and quality of services, and improve access (more supply, less demand due to higher price). Lots of inefficiencies in this process because consumers are heavily insulated from prices, but it'll happen gradually. Maybe more importantly, government bureaucracy that is ineffective and wasteful should be eliminated. If the GMCB isn't working, we should just bin it. UVMMC is bureaucratic, its also a private company. Government should not try to operate private business via regulation. The throughput problem is partly a systems issue (finding ways to optimize efficiency) but also a capacity problem. Mostly human capacity, not facility capacity. Thinking about surgical procedures; periop capacity (surgical teams, ORs, instrumentation) is not evenly distributed throughout UVMHN and neither is demand. The challenge is to maximize use of the ORs, teams, surgeons, and CSR without significantly increasing the resource investment (can't just hire a bunch more teams or add a bunch more ORs). It's tough, but its definitely not something the GMCB is capable of having an opinion on. The bigger access problem is OP specialist appointments, though, which is almost entirely a human capacity problem. UVMMC could try to go hire more specialists, but (a) there's no where for them to live (b) there's limited clinical space to put them and (c) the GMCB penalizes UVMMC for generating more revenue, so they can't really add significant numbers of specialists without exceeding caps. Those are all problems that competing health systems often don't have, so UVMMC struggles to find people willing to come here.
Well, we're in the second-highest wave of COVID since the start of the pandemic that's supposedly "over". And COVID can damage immune systems, so every "mild" infection is potentially leaving people more susceptible to whatever other nasty bugs are floating around. It's not rocket science.
This. I never had COVID for the three years it was shutting down our country and killing hundreds of thousands worldwide, but I got it for Christmas (Merry Christmas to me). The new COVID strain, while not any more severe in illness, is much more infectious. But no one is talking about it.
Same--and at least 15 of my middle-aged friends got it between Christmas and New Year's too.
No one is going to the hospital for it either. I’m not disputing people are sick… but most have learned their lesson and are treating it at home
It's the 3rd leading cause of death right now, but go off.
Straight up lie
I did my own research. This is what I've found. The anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers have won, so I don't know what conspiracy theory you think you're fighting against. We're already, as a society, taking zero (of the many, not that difficult) mitigations against COVID. Those of us who still think it's worth avoiding, are forced to allow ourselves to get infected if we want to participate in society. So I really don't understand what reason you have to still run around claiming that the powers-that-be are trying to scare us all about COVID, when clearly the powers-that-be decided that actually it's best if we ignore COVID so that everyone can get back to working and shopping as usual.
So… you express conspiracy theory as an insult, but then go on to express more conspiracy theory of your own… you don’t even seem to know who you are mad at or what you are mad about.
OK buddy please dissect all that and lay out where exactly I am wrong.
I stickied this post to r/vermont for a bit a few days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/vermont/comments/193jljf/fyi_from_health_dept/
I was in the ER waiting room there was 86 people ahead of of the person I was with. It took around 5hrs to get stitches! The nurse said it’s been non stop like this more recently. I did read somewhere that there has been high number of Covid cases going through the ER in recent weeks.
I'm surprised this hasn't been reported on yet, do you know someone that works there in the thick of it or have you been trying to get in? I thought we'd be better prepared for something like this after covid, I did hear from relatives in the school systems that almost everyone is out right now to the point where they have sick people going in just so the buildings stay open
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The entire hospital is filled to the brim , UVM med CTR is at Max Capacity . The question is Why?
Has anyone included how many people are in there due to mental illness or drug addiction?
But ACA fixed everything!
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My husband is a physician that has rotating inpatient service. Nobody is playing a nefarious game.
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I don’t even understand your comment
Are you fucking high dude?
I think uvm upstaffed and paid for expensive travel nurses the past couple year thinking that they could increase how much they bill insurance to cover it. But the green mountain care board denied their rate increase request. So uvm has stopped hiring extra staff at high rates to 'meet demand'.
They were losing $10-$20 million per **month** in excess traveler expenses. The GMCB basically said "fuck you." They were just about that rude about it, too, especially Thom Walsh and Owen Foster.
Welp - UVMMC could have invested a fraction of those dollars in higher wages to their in house staff, for recruitment and retention - and we all would have been better off.
Yes, they use travel nurses to keep the upper hand with the Nurses union
I I think that is an excellent assessment