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Hospitals warn of shortages, closures without emergency aid
醫院警告說，如果沒有緊急援助，醫院將會關閉


重點：




https://wapo.st/3dk8H38
U.S. hospitals are warning that they are so strapped for cash that without
some financial relief, they will be unable to meet their payrolls in a matter
of weeks and some could be forced to close just as coronavirus cases are
surging.

美國醫院警告說，它們的現金非常緊張，如果沒有一些財務上的緩解，它們將無法在幾週
內支付工資，一些醫院可能會因爲冠狀病毒病例激增而被迫關閉。

The American Hospital Association and three hospital chief executives
spanning the country said in a conference call Saturday that a federal
directive this week urging the cancellation of elective procedures — to
conserve scarce resources for patients with covid19 — is halting the type of
services that produce the most revenue.

美國醫院協會和全國三個醫院首席執行官週六在一次電話會議中表示,聯邦政府指令
本週敦促取消非必要程序-節約稀缺資源用來治療COVID-19患者，代價是停止那些產生
最多利潤的醫療服務。

And their ability to buy critically needed supplies — from protective gear
to more hospital beds — is being stymied by the fact that private vendors
are requiring hospitals to pay cash upon delivery, which they say they lack
the money to do.

他們購買急需的物資——從防護裝備到更多的病床——的能力正受到一個事實的阻礙，即
私人供應商要求醫院在付款時支付現金，但醫院說他們沒有這麼多錢。

This stark portrait of the ground-level reality for hospitals, in communities
where the pandemic has penetrated and those where it has not yet seriously
struck, comes as hospitals and other cornerstones of the U.S. health-care
system are pleading with Congress to provide large-scale financial relief.

當醫院和美國衛生保健系統的其他重要機構懇求國會提供大規模的財政援助時，這種對醫
院底層現實的赤裸裸的描繪出現了。

The American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association and the
American Nurses Association are jointly urging Congress to provide hospitals
and health systems $100 billion in emergency aid. The Federation of American
Hospitals, the trade group for for-profit hospitals, issued a call Friday
night for at least $225 billion in aid.

美國醫院協會、美國醫學會和美國護士協會聯合敦促國會向醫院和衛生系統提供1000億美
元的緊急援助。營利性醫院行業組織美國醫院聯合會(Federation of American
Hospitals)上週五晚間發出呼籲，要求至少提供2250億美元的援助。

On Saturday’s conference call, J. Scott Graham, the chief executive of Three
Rivers Hospital in rural Washington State communities where the pandemic has
not yet surged, said the cancellation of elective procedures means that “
there are no patients coming. … As a result, all of the revenue that
typically comes in to cover the cost of operating has dried up.”



Graham said that the hospital projects it will be able to meet its payroll
for the next three or four weeks. But he said it has stopped paying its
vendors and has been urging its local bank to extend its credit limit —
 unsuccessfully so far.

格雷厄姆說，醫院預計在未來三到四周內將能夠支付工資。但他表示，該公司已停止向供
應商付款，並一直敦促當地銀行延長其信用額度——但迄今未獲成功。

“If we don’t get some assistance in the next two weeks, we will have to
start having conversations with doctors and nurses and our community” about
the need to close, he said. “We are concerned we will not be able to be
around, because of the financial hit we are taking, by the time the surge
hits us.”




A hospital executive in a very different environment, LaRay Brown of One
Brooklyn Health System, which serves mainly low-income patients in that New
York City borough, said, “we have less than two weeks cash on hand.”

紐約布魯克林區一家主要爲低收入患者服務的醫療系統的主管拉雷· 布朗(LaRay Brown)
在一個非常不同的環境中工作，他說，“我們手頭只有不到兩週的現金。”

That system of three hospitals, nursing homes and community health centers
anticipates extra costs of more than $30 million per month, she said. It is
racing to set up tents for testing and screening, has hired additional staff
as others are isolated or home caring for children, and needs somehow to
fulfill a new order by New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) to increase hospital
bed capacity by 50 percent.



“We literally need to buy the beds,” Brown said. But with vendors insisting
on being paid at the time they are delivered, she said, “we can’t buy the
equipment … if we don’t have the immediate cash.”

“我們真的需要買床，”布朗說。但由於供應商堅持要求貨到付款，她說，“如果我們沒
有立即的現金，我們就無法購買設備。”

心得：

這就是美國的醫療體系，不但民眾必須付出昂貴的醫療費用，連醫院本身在現金流上
都十分脆弱。

身在台灣，你很難想像會有醫院跟你說我們現金不夠，付不出醫生跟護理師的薪水，
也沒有錢買設備跟病床，我們要倒閉了。


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