Hospitals in North Texas have been placed on alert regarding elective surgeries as COVID-19 cases make up a greater share of their patients. But for now, many of these elective procedures are expected to go on as planned, industry experts say.
North Texas hospitals now fall under Gov. Greg Abbott’s order from Sept. 17 outlining the circumstances under which some elective surgeries would be required to be postponed. These restrictions were triggered when COVID-19 patients exceeded 15% of all hospitalizations in the region for seven consecutive days.
But although the order requires doctors to consider postponing elective procedures, it contains a broad exception. As long as an elective surgery “would not deplete any hospital capacity needed to cope with the COVID-19 disaster,” it would not need to be postponed, the order reads.
Stephen Love, the president and CEO of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, said hospitals are complying with the order by closely monitoring their capacity for treatment of COVID-19 patients. Non-essential surgical procedures unrelated to the virus are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, he said.
