WVU in the News: Ohio Valley facing pandemic with a health system hollowed out by hospital closures
As new cases of coronavirus mount in the Ohio Valley, health officials are bracing for an onslaught of patients and what could be unprecedented demand for beds, medical staff and specialized equipment.
Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia have disproportionately high rates of people vulnerable to serious illness from COVID-19. But the region’s capacity to treat them has been sharply reduced by the closure of some 21 hospitals over the past 15 years. An analysis by the Ohio Valley ReSource shows some of the communities where hospitals have closed have some of the nation’s poorest health outcomes, making them especially vulnerable.
Still more hospitals in the region are being closed now, even as the pandemic unfolds.
Health care professionals across the region, including Dr. Michael Brumage, director of the School of Public Health's Preventive Medicine Residency Program and medical director of Cabin Creek Health Systems, weigh-in on this challenging situation.
Photo: Michael Brumage