When coronavirus peaks, will Fort Worth hospitals be ready? Their silence is dangerous
As much as it may hurt to hear this, the coronavirus hasn’t hit its peak in Tarrant County yet. It’s going to get worse: more illness, more deaths and more strain on resources.
It’s never been more important to have consistent information about what lies ahead and what it will take to deal with it. And yet, when it comes to sharing the specifics of how we are prepared for the next phase — or not — local political and public health leaders are vague to the point of being unresponsive.
The Star-Telegram has been seeking information about staffing, bed capacity, coronavirus testing, ventilators and personal protective equipment at Tarrant County hospitals. The Fort Worth community needs to know how well prepared we are for the spike in cases, illness and death that is projected to come in about a month.
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When they’ve answered questions at all, these institutions have declined to provide many specifics. They assure they’re ready for the worst but offer no proof.
And it’s not just us. Tarrant County public health director Vinny Taneja, asked Monday if he knew the status of COVID-19 hospitalizations, said: “We would have to call each hospital to get that information, and sometimes we don’t get it.”
Huh? If the county’s top official charged with coordinating the public health response doesn’t know the current impact of the disease on our hospitals, what are the rest of us supposed to do?
County Judge Glen Whitley filled in some of the gaps late Thursday, saying the county has looked at possible locations for a pop-up hospital and sought help from local members of Congress to secure needed equipment. He said that the hospitals’ lean toward secrecy was designed to avoid a public panic.
But we’re already under quarantine for the rest of the month. The virus is shooting through the country. Millions are already unemployed, with millions more to come. Those who are inclined to panic have plenty to work with.
It’s understandable that hospitals would be focused first on patient safety and public health. And as private entities, many don’t have the same legal obligation to provide information as government entities such as the JPS Health Network.
But most are nonprofit organizations, supported by government and charitable efforts and reliant on public goodwill. And federal taxpayers will ultimately foot much of the bill for the coronavirus fight. So it’s not unreasonable to expect answers about how they’ll fulfill their vital public role in a health crisis.
Plus, it’s in their self-interest: Assurances that they’re ready, with nothing to back it up could raise doubt. Plenty of people assume, based on experience, that when leaders don’t talk, it’s because what they would have to say would be bad.
The best way to avoid panic would be to calmly explain, repeatedly, what’s in place to deal with the worst. There’s a strong chance Tarrant County will need two vital response facilities: a drive-through testing center and a pop-up hospital. Leaders should be talking about the infrastructure people might see — and need to access — when the virus peaks here.
Where will patients go when hospitals are at capacity? How will staffing and equipment be acquired? How many ventilators and intensive-care beds do we have?
And confusion about getting tested for COVID-19 is already rampant. People have shared tales of trying to go through a maze to try to find out if they have the disease. When the spread is exponentially faster than it is now, how will testing work?
We need Whitley, Mayor Betsy Price, the City Council and county commissioners to step up and demand this level of transparency. And they can start with themselves. Until this week, we’ve gotten little information about cases in Tarrant County. Whitley provided some details this week, but the more we know about who’s affected, where they are and how they got sick, the better.
Leadership, especially in a time of crisis, means stepping up with facts and details. It requires outlining where the response stands and acknowledging what the weak points are. It requires repetition of what to expect when the worst goes down, so people will have confidence that plans were in place, will be properly executed and adjusted where necessary.
And if our city, county and healthcare leaders can’t meet that bar, it will tell us a lot about how ready they were to lead in this crisis at all.
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 12:03 PM.