Rise in covid-19 cases worries rural hospitals; overall health may have declined as people delayed care for other issues

A rise in covid-19 cases in rural areas is causing concern among rural hospitals and their staffs, amid worries about overall health, Todd Neeley reports for DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

"Cash-strapped and under-equipped since even before the pandemic hit, the new coronavirus forced them earlier this year to adjust their plans and resources to get through the past few months and survive in their communities -- as well as save and serve their patients," Neeley writes in the first of a two-part series. "As states and communities emerge from various restrictions and regulations that may have helped slow or contain the spread of covid-19 for the past few months, the number of cases is growing."

And cases of other diseases and disorders are more serious because many people delayed treatment in the first three months of the pandemic, so overall health may have worsened, Kyle Ulveling, cardiologist and chief medical officer at St. Anthony Memorial Hospital in Carroll, Iowa, told Neeley: "I can easily say the patients I'm seeing in clinic are sicker than they were six months ago."

In the second part of his package, Neeley uses St. Anthony as an example of how rural hospitals have dealt with the pandemic from the start, including increased use of telehealth, financial pressures from shutdown of elective procedures and dealing with coronavirus hotspots at meatpacking plants.