Overwhelmed by Omicron surge, US hospitals delay surgeries

Hospitals across the United States are postponing elective surgeries to free up staff and beds due to a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Administrators say hospital staff shortages have been compounded in the last month by medical practitioners isolating or quarantining as they themselves are infected or exposed to the virus.

Hospital systems in nearly half of US states including Maryland, Virginia and Ohio have announced they would postpone elective surgeries, a Reuters review of public statements and local media reports found, and at least three state governments; New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts, have implemented or recommended state-wide delays.

Most of the areas where hospitals are suspending surgeries have seen either a peak or surge in daily COVID-19 hospitalization rates during December or January, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.

The Omicron surge has also forced the National Institutes of Health to postpone elective surgeries at the largest hospital in the United States devoted to clinical research, Reuters reported.

Suspending elective surgeries can create a backlog of cases, cause millions of dollars in lost revenue for hospitals, and in some cases lead to serious illness or deaths.

Care that is deemed elective can still be crucial, said Cynthia Cox, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Tens of thousands more people than is typical died from non-COVID causes during the pandemic and some of those deaths are believed to be related to delayed care, she said.

"It's often cancer surgeries or other kinds of care that still needs to happen in a very timely manner for people's safety and health," said Cox.

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, a Columbus-based center with over 2,200 beds across multiple hospitals, is tabling some non-urgent, elective surgeries requiring an overnight stay after a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations, said Dr. Timothy Pawlik, chair of the Department of Surgery and surgeon in chief.

The seven-day average of daily new hospital admissions in Ohio is at an all-time high, the most recent CDC data shows.

Johns Hopkins had to move one of its hospitals, the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, into crisis protocols; delaying elective surgeries and redirecting staff, spokesperson Danny Jacobs said.

The Baltimore hospital saw a 360% increase in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in December, the highest it has experienced since the start of the pandemic, he said.

The Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, which suspended elective surgeries in its downtown Richmond, Virginia hospital, said it did so due to unprecedented demand for inpatient care driven by the Omicron variant.

MG