BALTIMORE — The president and CEO of the Maryland organization that advocates for the state’s hospitals called on Gov. Larry Hogan Tuesday to reinstate the public health emergency in response to the staffing and capacity crises forming at several medical facilities statewide.
Bob Atlas, of the Maryland Hospital Association, said such a declaration would “make plain to everyone how serious the situation is right now.” He said Maryland hospitals are nearly full and emergency departments are stretched thin while critical staffing shortages, specifically nurses, are exacerbating the problem.
“Hospitals are seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases, and hospitals have fewer clinicians ready to care for all patients who need hospital care,” Atlas said in an email. “Despite these challenges, hospitals are doing everything they can to ensure all Marylanders receive the best possible care.”
The hospital association’s remarks come in the wake of more hospitals in the state resorting to emergency standards of care, enabling them to ease some of the burden on medical personnel, including postponing some patients’ surgical procedures, cutting back on documentation for now, and converting physical spaces to other uses as needed. The University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie and the Luminis Health network, which includes hospitals in Annapolis and Lanham, shifted Monday to “crisis” and “contingency” standards of care, following University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health declaring a hospital “disaster” Friday.
Representatives from Hogan’s office and the Maryland Department of Health did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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