graduate of the University of Pennsylvania medical school, Mitchell Blutt, MD, is an accomplished physician and investment professional based in New York City. A professor at Weill Cornell Medical College and the CEO of Consonance Capital, Mitchell Blutt proposed a novel solution for meeting the needs of patients while hospital resources are strained due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Blutt suggested a program he called “Operation Covid Airlift,” which would use medical airlifts to transport patients from a pandemic epicenter to other regions with more capacity to treat them. He suggests that moving patients to areas with a surplus of ventilators and available medical staff may be additive to the process of moving ventilators and technicians to coronavirus hotspots.
Patients who are at high risk for requiring intubation but currently stable could be moved from overwhelmed hot spots to other regions that are more equipped to care for them. As patient need outstrips critical-care resources in coronavirus hotspots, Operation Covid Airlift could also transport already-intubated patients to hospitals with available intensive care capacity. In addition, hospitalized patients with less severe symptoms could be transported to hospitals with the capacity to care for them in repurposed commercial jets, many of which are currently unused. While there is a risk involved with moving patients, there also is a risk of running out of ventilators and exhausting the capacity of medical personnel in regions that are overwhelmed.
Read more at https://www.wsj.com/articles/operation-covid-airlift-would-be-medevac-in-reverse-11585695115.
Mr. Blutt suggested a program he called “Operation Covid Airlift,” which would use medical airlifts to transport patients from a pandemic epicenter to other regions with more capacity to treat them. He suggests that moving patients to areas with a surplus of ventilators and available medical staff may be additive to the process of moving ventilators and technicians to coronavirus hotspots.
Patients who are at high risk for requiring intubation but currently stable could be moved from overwhelmed hot spots to other regions that are more equipped to care for them. As patient need outstrips critical-care resources in coronavirus hotspots, Operation Covid Airlift could also transport already-intubated patients to hospitals with available intensive care capacity. In addition, hospitalized patients with less severe symptoms could be transported to hospitals with the capacity to care for them in repurposed commercial jets, many of which are currently unused. While there is a risk involved with moving patients, there also is a risk of running out of ventilators and exhausting the capacity of medical personnel in regions that are overwhelmed.
Read more at https://www.wsj.com/articles/operation-covid-airlift-would-be-medevac-in-reverse-11585695115.
