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Recently, as the number of confirmed corona 19 patients exceeded 1,000, the worst psychological margin line, and the number of patients with severe gastric disorders increased significantly, discussions about obtaining 10,000 beds are in full swing. It is argued through the media that this is only possible when private hospitals participate. The reason is that if a ‘crown bed’ is created only in public hospitals, there is no place to send vulnerable patients who are hospitalized.
If so, what is the trick to solve this?
First of all, only 10,000 beds are currently possible in public hospitals.
In 2018, there were 63,924 public hospital beds in Korea (cited from 2019 public health statistics). Of these, it is known that there are currently around 10,000 corona-only beds. Suppose that, based on 60,000 public beds, 20% of corona-confirmed patients are hospitalized for an average of 20 days. It can be easily concluded that 15,000 corona confirmed patients per day can be treated as public beds. To use even private hospitals as crown beds, it is reasonable to seek the cooperation of private hospitals after using the beds at least in public hospitals at most. This is because public hospitals first play a public role.
Second, there is a clear limit to filling part of the bed with crown patients, whether public or private. This is because there is a high possibility of corona spread in the hospital. In fact, most of the negative pressure beds (where it is possible to isolate the structure) in advanced general hospitals have already received corona patients, and the rest of the intensive care units are already occupied by critically ill patients other than corona .
In addition, to be able to send patients from small and medium hospitals to university hospitals, it is a reality that they are all difficult due to the lack of isolation beds. In this situation, if private university hospitals receive more corona patients, it becomes more difficult for patients who need medical treatment in higher-level hospitals to be hospitalized. The resulting serious side effects are unavoidable. For corona patients, using the entire hospital, rather than a few hospital beds, is the only alternative that can alleviate concern about transmission in the hospital. Dongsan Hospital in the first half of this year during the Daegu-Gyeongbuk corona epidemic, or Pyeongtaek Park Ae Hospital, which was recently offered as a private hospital as a dedicated crown hospital, are representative examples of success.
It would be appropriate to use inactive staff and graduates for the shortage of doctors and nurses. In fact, countries such as Italy and the United States, which had shortages of medical personnel since the first outbreak, were able to overcome the shortage of medical personnel in this way.
Finally, in the case of medically vulnerable patients admitted to public hospitals, it is expected that it will be possible to transfer them to small and medium-sized private hospitals that currently have space for beds. Vulnerable care is not an area of care available only in specific hospitals. If beds in top-tier emergency hospitals are not insured, more serious medical gaps may occur in the future.
It is also a good idea to treat some patients in difficult financial conditions through the partial burden of government hospital expenses. The government-led social safety net can be a model for the vulnerable class in the ‘Age of the Crown’.
In that case, it is expected that at the same time the problems not only of all patients hospitalized in public hospitals, but also of small and medium-sized private hospitals that are currently in the test phase will improve.
The government’s plan to create a crown bed in a private hospital will also help offset 5 to 10 times the cost of medical treatment for existing inpatients. However, it will be possible to secure more beds and medical staff with the above measures. Also, it could be the best way to stop the daily medical gap treating patients, not corona infection.
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