As hospitals bleed cash, elective surgeries resume

Hospitals and outpatient clinics across the United States that stopped elective surgeries due to the novel coronavirus outbreak are resuming the medical procedures after losing billions of dollars, laying off doctors, nurses and other staff and cutting salaries.

Many states and regions, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Illinois, upstate New York, Ohio, Texas and Utah, have announced plans to resume elective procedures or said they will do so soon.

But all report huge revenue losses because the lucrative elective procedures and fewer patients coming in for regular appointments have stopped.

In Illinois, nearly $1.5 billion a month is lost, the Illinois Health and Hospital Association said.

In Florida, hospitals want to start performing elective surgeries when Governor Ron DeSantis' order prohibiting them expires on May 8.Hospitals statewide have lost an estimated $400 million to $500 million in revenue, the Miami Herald reported.

On Tuesday, New York state, which has been hit the hardest by the virus, will allow hospitals in upstate areas to resume limited outpatient services. Governor Andrew Cuomo said elective treatments will be permitted where "hospitals are laying off people because they are so quiet".

But in New York and surrounding areas, elective surgeries are still not allowed.

Tightening belts

The city's largest hospital system, Northwell Health with 23 hospitals, and other hospital systems in the state say they have lost $350 million a month due to the halt in elective procedures.

"People will be tightening their belts," said Michael Dowling, Northwell chief executive.

"When you are in a situation losing the money we're losing, you look at every opportunity to tighten and tighten."

In Connecticut, where elective procedures are on hold, the Connecticut Hospital Association said on Tuesday that hospitals across the state are looking at a total revenue drop of up to $400 million per month, mostly because of canceled elective surgeries.

Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford said on Tuesday it was furloughing 400 employees across its health system, including its flagship hospital in Hartford, pointing to delayed elective surgeries that have caused revenues to tumble.

David Hoyt, executive director of the American College of Surgeons, urged a slow ramp-up in procedures, with close monitoring of community infection rates.

"We would not recommend anyone start like flipping a switch on," he said.

Hospitals restarting elective surgeries have been told they must still be able to handle any surge in patients with coronavirus.

In upstate New York, the procedures can resume if within the previous 10 days there were fewer than 10 hospitalizations in a county due to COVID-19. Available bed capacity must remain above 25 percent.