FLORIDA — The Florida Hospital Association (FHA) created a plan to reopen hospitals for elective surgeries and procedure. The plan was shared with Governor Ron DeSantis’ Re-Open Florida Task Force Tuesday.
It includes four main steps:
- Observe COVID-19 rate of occurrence in the community.
- Prevent transmission of covid-19 to patients and health care providers.
- Establish a transparent and collaborate prioritization process to guide restoration to elective surgery and procedures.
- Network with all health care providers across the continuum of care to fully restore health care services.
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FHA said it has not been decided which hospitals will open first, but it’s part of the discussion with Florida’s Re-opening Task Force. More information of their plan can be found here.
Until hospitals and medical facilities reopen all of their services, some have had to furlough or cut pay to employees.
Due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mayo Clinic has announced they will be furloughing employees and making salary reductions after April 28, according to a spokesperson with the medical facility. Wednesday, the facility announced about 30,000 staff from across all Mayo locations will received reduced hours or some type of furlough, and the duration will vary depending on the work unit.
Dr. David Caro with UF Health told Action News Jax they have not issued any widespread firings, but some of their staff isn’t able to work because operating rooms and emergency centers are closed temporarily.
“We’re in this weird position of we’ve got cases going on and they’re increasing but we don’t have as many people in the hospital or coming through the emergency centers and the ORs,” Dr. Caro said. He is part of the hospital’s Emergency Preparedness Team and said they are working on new staffing possibilities each week.
“We’re trying to get back to where we can have a regular outpatient surgery, those kinds of things,” Dr. Caro said. “Those are urgent things to get done, if you’re scheduled for a surgery and it’s not a nice thing to have those delayed if we don’t have to, and we’re in the situation where we have to right now.”
Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is committed to reopening hospitals to get health care providers back to work and treat patients.
“We need to do it pretty quickly because if we keep it up the way we are going, I think more people are going to get laid off,” DeSantis said. “I think there is going to be less financial viability for some of these healthcare outfits, which is very important.”
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