Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet, Minn., has halted some elective surgeries to free up beds amid a surge in hospitalizations, according to The Pine Journal.
The hospital made the decision Nov. 5 to delay inpatient surgeries that will require an overnight stay for the week of Nov. 9.
"We aren't going to do any of those inpatient surgeries next week," hospital CEO Rick Breuer said Nov. 5. "That would tend to be like the total hip replacements, the kinds of things that, they’re important — I’ve had loved ones who had it done — but we can delay that a couple weeks, and it won’t change the outcome."
Mr. Breuer said that the need to halt some surgeries comes not just because of an uptick in COVID-19 cases, but also because patients are much sicker because they delayed care this spring due to fear of contracting the coronavirus.