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On The Brink, Rural Hospitals Brace For New Surge In COVID-19 Cases - NPR
Jul 03, 2020 1 min, 24 secs
A hallway leads to a makeshift isolation ward for COVID-19 patients.

A hallway leads to a makeshift isolation ward for COVID-19 patients.

People around here have been taking the virus seriously, Gomez says, but after two months of shutdowns, his business is barely hanging on.

Up the street, at the 16-bed Syringa Hospital and Clinic, CEO Abner King says his staff is prepared for a possible surge in coronavirus infections in a couple of weeks.

Syringa Hospital's CEO, Abner King, says his staff is ready for a possible surge in COVID-19 patients, as long as larger regional hospitals aren't overwhelmed.

Syringa Hospital's CEO, Abner King, says his staff is ready for a possible surge in COVID-19 patients, as long as larger regional hospitals aren't overwhelmed.

Most patients in need of critical care are transferred to larger regional hospitals, which so far during the pandemic have not been overwhelmed themselves as first feared.

Syringa staff members have been preparing and instituting precautions for months, yet to date they've not treated a single COVID-19 patient.

"That's the tough part about all this, because you get all ready for this big emergency and then nothing happens and then you have to fight complacency a little bit," King says.

King says people just stopped coming into the hospital, its clinic and even its emergency room.

Among other things, it has helped pay for personal protective gear and other supplies as well as the construction of a temporary isolation ward for COVID-19 patients.

That money is running out in the next few days, but King says business has recently picked back up to near pre-pandemic levels, as non-COVID-19 patients are starting to return to the clinic and hospital

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