Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn this week wrote to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, asking him to request that the Defense Department send in USNS Mercy, and its medical staff, to provide relief to her district. She wrote, “Emergency departments throughout L.A. County are overwhelmed and cannot take in all patients in need of urgent care.” She asked for the 1,000-bed ship, “with accompanying medical staff [to go] to the Port of Los Angeles.”
Nationwide, the U.S. lost 21 hospitals in 2021, according to the hospital media source Becker’s Hospital Review website. The closures hit 14 states, mostly in rural areas, but one in Houston. The drastically underserved state of West Virginia lost three. Typical of the reasons are the staffing shortages, lack of adequate federal reimbursement for all the treatment to the poor (Medicaid,) and just impossible financial trouble. In West Virginia, the “sudden and severe” impact of COVID-19 was more than one 207-bed hospital could withstand, and shut down. Combined, these hospitals alone represent 1,100-1,500 beds.
