The coronavirus crisis has upended American [and Canadian] life, and fresh ideas are needed for dealing with the problems it’s creating. Here is a collection of smart solutions. We will expand this list over the coming weeks.
Unleash fourth-year medical students
This week, around 20,000 fourth-year U.S. medical students will learn which hospital they are assigned for their residency during the annual National Resident Matching Program. Normally, they would begin serving patients in July, but there’s a way to do it now.
If medical schools instead confer MD degrees immediately, instead of waiting until the end of the semester, these hospitals could hire, train and deploy an extra 20,000 physicians at a time when we are straining to “flatten the curve” of the covid-19 coronavirus. This proposal is a few weeks old and has already passed from Columbia University to New York State. But others should take up the idea of accelerating fourth-year medical students into their chosen life of service…
House mild cases in hotels
One of the toughest decisions facing physicians and public health officials is where to send patients who test positive for the covid-19 coronavirus. For the small but significant proportion with severe or critical illness, the decision to hospitalize is trivial. But where to send the apparently large majority of cases that are mild or even symptom-free?
These patients, often young, need to be isolated to reduce spread. But using a hospital bed for isolation alone takes up capacity, puts others at risk and chews through protective equipment that doctors, nurses and other staff desperately need…
A natural alternative is to send people home, with clear instructions to self-isolate. But in some cases that is not feasible, and it poses evident risks…
Fortunately, there is a potential answer: America’s prodigious hotel industry. And in case you haven’t noticed, there is plenty of room at the inn….
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To read the entire article in The Washington Post — including three more smart solutions — click here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/20/coronyt avirus-is-upending-society-here-are-ideas-mitigate-its-impact/
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