With hundreds of staff out sick amid the latest COVID-19 surge, University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City said it will postpone about 20 percent of its surgeries for at least a week, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Jan. 4.
"We have to be able to preserve our abilities to do surgeries ... where major risk to life or limb are at stake," Robert Glasgow, MD, the hospital's chair of surgery, said during a news conference, according to the newspaper.
The decision comes as University of Utah Hospital is facing staffing strain. As of Jan. 4, the hospital reported at least 500 employees were sick or isolating amid the latest COVID-19 surge, including kitchen and housekeeping staff as well as nurses and physicians.
Hospitals across the U.S. are experiencing workforce shortages, and the coronavirus has sidelined many healthcare employees, adding workforce strain.
In addition to Utah, hospitals in other states, including Virginia, Illinois and Pennsylvania, have also paused nonurgent surgeries amid these and other staffing challenges. Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare also was delaying some surgeries, spokesperson Jess Gomez told the Tribune.
Overall, new daily COVID-19 hospitalization rates in the U.S. have risen 51 percent in the last two weeks, according to HHS data tracked by The New York Times.