Will your hospital survive this pandemic? And, if yes, how?

A recent survey demonstrated that the main issue in health care for the next year is likely to be hospital financial survival. Indeed, according to the AHA, US hospitals are losing over $50 billion (!) per month. The most likely causes of these losses are cancelled elective surgeries. They are cancelled due to the competition between the COVID and surgical patients for hospital resources (beds, staff, etc.) even when PPE is available. In order to help patients survive a possible second wave, hospitals should themselves financially survive. How to alleviate this competition? One way of doing so is to ask for external (governmental) financial injections, which is neither very promising nor a sustainable course of action. Another is described in the Joint Commission Resources book. This approach has been demonstrated to save many human lives and millions at every hospital that implemented it, significantly reduce staff burnout - a huge issue during this pandemic, and provide access to surgical care to the maximal extent possible. Pre-pandemic, it has been credited with a potential 4%-5% reduction in the overall US healthcare cost or over $150 billion annually . It has been successfully tested during the peak in the COVID patient demand. I am not aware of any other means to address this issue. Are you?

Cancelling elective surgeries is terrible for patients, whose surgeries eventually become urgent if neglected. Cancelling elective surgeries is also bad for hospital bottom line, for surgeons themselves, for hospital staff that could be furloughed if hospitals operate on red ink, etc. If we can alleviate this problem, we definitely should. What is your hospital’s plan to manage this challenge? Please advise/comment.