106 hospitals postponing elective procedures amid the COVID-19 resurgence

Hospitals across the U.S. are beginning to suspend elective procedures to respond to an uptick in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. 

Below is a breakdown of 106 hospitals postponing or canceling the procedures to free up space, ensure proper staffing or enough protective gear to care for COVID-19 patients:

1. Citing an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations, Gadsden, Ala.-based Riverview Regional Medical Center will postpone all elective surgeries, effective Dec. 8, according to the hospital's Facebook post. Outpatient procedures, including CT and MRI scans, X-rays and labs will still be performed.

2. University Medical Center in Las Vegas is delaying elective surgeries scheduled for the week of Dec. 7, because of a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

3. Sunrise Health in Las Vegas is curtailing elective surgeries to save bed capacity and staffing to care for an influx of COVID-19 patients and emergent cases, according to The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

4. Greensburg, Pa.-based Excela Health will postpone elective procedures that require an inpatient admission, according to TribLive. The decision is to help save staff and beds for COVID-19 and emergent cases.

5. Citing an uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations, University of Alabama Birmingham Hospital has delayed some elective surgeries and cut back on scheduling the procedures, according to AL.com

6. Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y., is pausing most elective surgeries to deal with a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to local news station WSYR. The hospital also moved some younger COVID-19 patients to its children's hospital. 

7. Jefferson, Iowa-based Green County Medical Center will temporarily suspend elective surgeries and procedures from Dec. 19 to Jan. 18 to ensure the hospital can respond to and care for emergent and COVID-19 cases, according to Racoon Valley Radio. 

8. MaineHealth in Portland will scale back elective procedures, effective Dec. 7, according to Maine Public Radio. The health system will delay surgeries that require an overnight hospital stay. The system will start by postponing surgeries to free up about 18 beds.

9. Cabell Huntington (W.Va.) Hospital will start postponing elective surgeries that can safely be rescheduled, according to Coal Valley News. The hospital plans to monitor and scale back elective procedures if needed from Dec. 7 to Jan. 15. 

10. St. Mary’s Medical Center in Huntington, W.Va., will scale back the number of elective procedures it will perform to ensure it has capacity and resources to care for a growing number of COVID-19 patients, according to Coal Valley News. The hospital plans to monitor and limit elective procedures from Dec. 7 to Jan. 15.

11. York, Pa.-based WellSpan has postponed some elective surgeries to accommodate an increasing number of patients presenting with COVID-19 and emergent cases, according to the York Daily Record. The elective surgery suspension includes both inpatient and outpatient cases. The system will close some outpatient surgery centers. 

12. Kaleida Health in Buffalo, N.Y., will postpone all non-essential elective procedures until further notice to comply with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mandate to halt surgeries in Erie County.  The order only applies to inpatient facilities. 

13. Santa Barbara (Calif.) Cottage Hospital will reduce the number of elective procedures performed because of a rise in COVID-19 cases in the state, according to local news station KEYT. Elective surgeries requiring an overnight hospital stay will be reduced by 50 percent. Outpatient surgeries are expected to continue as normal. 

14. Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger is reducing the number of elective surgeries performed amid a rising number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to PennLive.

15. Marshall Medical Centers Health System in Boaz, Ala., has suspended all elective outpatient surgeries, effective Dec. 2. Staff from the surgical teams will be helping support the increased number of intensive care unit beds, according to the health system's Facebook post

16. Huntsville (Ala.) Hospital Healthcare System will start to postpone inpatient elective surgeries at three hospitals to ensure it has capacity to care for an influx of COVID-19 and emergent cases, according to AL.com.  

17. Citing an increase in COVID-19 and emergent cases, Butler (Pa.) Health System is suspending nonemergency surgeries that require an inpatient stay, according to local news station WTAE.

18. Rochester (N.Y) Regional Health has started to cancel some elective surgeries to ensure it has enough resources to care for an influx in COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to NBC affiliate WHEC. 

19. Aultman Hospital, a three-hospital system in Canton, Ohio, is suspending inpatient elective surgeries at its main facility in Canton as COVID-19 patients continue to fill beds, according to The Repository. The hospital will continue to offer inpatient electives at its other hospitals in Alliance and Orville. The cases will be evaluated weekly.  

20. St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nev., will suspend elective surgeries for two weeks, starting Dec. 4, according to local news station KOLO. The hospital attributed the postponement to an increase in COVID-19 patients and other seasonal increases. 

21. Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, N.J., delayed certain nonurgent surgeries to care for a growing number of emergent and COVID-19 cases, according to a Dec. 7 company news release. Staff involved in nonemergent healthcare procedures have been redeployed to support COVID-19 efforts.

22. Johnson City, Tenn.-based Ballad Health will suspend all elective surgeries, effective Dec. 7, according to local news station WCYB. The health system said the decision was made to ensure staff can care for an influx of COVID-19 hospitalizations. The health system had previously suspended some elective surgeries at three hospitals across Tennessee. 

23. Cleveland Clinic will postpone all nonessential inpatient surgeries requiring an inpatient stay or intensive care unit stay at most of its Ohio hospitals from Dec. 7 through Jan. 4. The system said the postponement excludes Lutheran Hospital in Cleveland. The health system had previously postponed some elective cases at its facilities. 

24. Elliot Hospital in Manchester, N.H., is capping the number of elective cases it can perform each day due to a staffing shortage, according to The Union Leader. As a result, several surgeries and other procedures have been rescheduled.

25. Citing a need to save staff and resources for COVID-19 and emergent cases, Lawrence (Mass.) General Hospital has temporarily halted all elective surgeries, according to The Eagle-Tribune. The elective surgery halt began Dec. 1. 

26. PeaceHealth in Vancouver, Wash., will begin delaying non-urgent surgeries at its hospitals in Vancouver and Longview to help manage the surge in COVID-19 cases, according to local news station KPTV

27. Providence Oregon said its five hospitals in the Portland area are delaying some elective procedures amid the surge in COVID-19 cases, according to KPTV. 

28. The University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center will start postponing some non-urgent surgeries to ensure it has the bed capacity and staff to care for a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to Rochester First. The hospital will meet daily to review scheduled surgeries and staffing. 

29. Because of an influx of COVID-19 patients, Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tenn., plans to cancel elective surgeries scheduled Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, according to The Commercial Appeal. The system will revisit its decision to postpone some of those surgeries after the two-day pause. 

30. Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis (Tenn.) is delaying elective surgeries requiring hospitalization amid the COVID-19 resurgence, according to The Commercial Appeal. 

31. St. Charles Bend (Ore.) is postponing some elective surgeries to manage bed capacity and staffing requirements, according to The Bend Bulletin. 

32. Main Line Health in Philadelphia began postponing elective cases that would have required an overnight hospital stay in an effort to preserve bed space and staff for COVID-19 patients, according to CBS Philadelphia. The hospital began postponing procedures on Nov. 30. 

33. Citing an increase in COVID-19 cases, Crosset, Ark.-based Ashley County Medical Center is temporarily postponing all elective surgeries, according to local news station KTVE.

34. UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock, Ark., is limiting the number of inpatient elective surgery cases performed to manage a COVID-19 case surge in the state, according to the Arkansas Times. The medical center will continue performing those that can be done in an outpatient center or those that do not require an overnight hospital stay.

35. Swedish Health in Seattle is postponing some nonemergency surgeries to ensure it has enough intensive care unit capacity amid an uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to KIRO 7.

36. MultiCare Deaconess Hospital in Spokane, Wash., has rescheduled some elective surgeries to ensure it can care for an influx in COVID-19 patients, according to The Spokesman-Review. The hospital plans to evaluate surgical cases on a daily basis. 

37. Guthrie (N.Y.) Corning Hospital has paused some inpatient, nonemergency surgeries because of a rise in COVID-19 patients, according to NBC affiliate WETM 18.

38. Akron, Ohio-based Summa Health plans to suspend a variety of elective services starting Dec. 1, the health system said in a Facebook post. The affected areas include surgical services, cardiology, endoscopy and interventional radiology.

39. St. Tammany Health System in Covington, La., will suspend select inpatient elective surgeries deemed not time sensitive by surgeons because of an increase in COVID-19 patients, according to Fox 8. Physicians at the hospital system were informed the night of Nov. 30. 

40. Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo, Colo., is limiting the number of elective cases it performs because of an increase in COVID-19 cases in its service area, according to KRDO. 

41. Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center is deferring some elective procedures, because of concerns over a post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 surge, according to ABC affiliate News Channel 9. The deferrals started Nov. 30.

42. Charleston (W.Va.) Area Medical Center is reducing elective procedures by 50 percent in response to an increase in higher acuity patients, according to WCHS TV.

43. Mercy Health Youngstown (Ohio) will indefinitely suspend elective procedures that require an inpatient admission starting Nov. 26, according to the Tribune Chronicle. 

44. Prescot, Ariz.-based Yavapai Regional Medical Center, which recently joined Dignity Health, will limit elective procedures effective Nov. 26 to Dec. 4, according to The Daily Courier. 

45. South Bend, Ind.-based Beacon Health System is suspending nonemergency surgeries to free up bed space and staff to care for a surge in COVID-19 cases, according to WSBT. The surgeries affected include those that require an inpatient stay. 

46. Citing a spike in COVID-19 cases, Goshen (Ind.) Health is suspending nonurgent surgeries, according to WSBT.

47. Stormont Vail Health in Topeka, Kan., is rescheduling some elective surgeries that require overnight stays to free up bed space, according to local news station WIBW. 

48. UW Medicine in Seattle will suspend nonemergency surgeries that require an inpatient hospital stay, effective Nov. 23 through Feb. 1.

49. Mercy Hospital South in St. Louis plans to delay some nonurgent procedures that require longer hospital stays amid a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  

50. Metro Health-University of Michigan Health in Wyoming, Mich., has delayed some surgeries that require an inpatient stay, according to MiBiz.

51. Albuquerque, N.M.-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services is canceling nonurgent surgeries that require hospitalization, according to local news station KBOB. The health system said it will postpone those surgeries that can be delayed for six weeks or longer safely.  

52. HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wis., is postponing electives on a case-by-case basis amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, according to The Leader-Telegram.

53. IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis has started to reduce the amount of elective procedures it will perform, while still trying to catch up on those that were postponed during the initial surge, according to MedPageToday.

54. Carson Tahoe Hospital in Carson City, Nev., has delayed non-time sensitive surgeries for a few weeks to free up space and staff to care for a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to local station News 4

55. The 267-bed Mercy Health Muskegon (Mich.) has begun to delay elective surgeries as needed amid an influx of COVID-19 cases, according to MiBiz.

56. Buffalo, N.Y.-based Catholic Health will halt all inpatient elective surgeries that require an overnight stay for two weeks amid a COVID-19 hospitalization surge, according to Buffalo News. The healthcare system will start rescheduling procedures Nov. 21, and reevaluate if an extension is needed Dec. 5. 

57. Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine will reduce the number of nonemergency surgeries it performs to help preserve bed capacity and staff to help care for a surge in COVID-19 cases, according to the Northwest Herald

58. Morris (Ill.) Hospital and Healthcare Centers postponed some inpatient surgeries requiring overnight stays the week of Nov. 16 due to a bed shortage exacerbated by the rise in COVID-19 cases, according to NBC Chicago. 

58. Memorial Community Hospital and Health System in Blair, Neb., is limiting elective surgeries requiring an overnight hospital stay for several weeks to preserve bed capacity and ensure proper staffing levels to care for the influx of COVID-19 cases, according to the Pilot-Tribune & Enterprise

60. Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Mich., is deferring elective surgeries requiring an overnight hospital stay, according to Michigan Radio. The deferral rate is about 10 percent, according to the report. 

61. Avera St. Mary's Hospital in Pierre, S.D., is postponing nonemergency procedures so staff can care for the influx of COVID-19 cases and respond to emergent needs, according to DRGNews.

62. Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare will postpone some surgeries that require an inpatient admission to free up beds, preserve supplies and free up providers amid a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations. The hospital system will only delay those that can be safely postponed. 

63. Froedtert Health in Wauwatosa, Wis., will delay non-urgent surgeries that require an inpatient admission post-surgery in an effort to free up staff and beds amid the coronavirus case surge in Wisconsin, according to local news station TMJ4. The hospitals are located in Wauwatosa, Menomonee Falls and West Bend. 

64. Memorial Hospital in Aurora, Neb., has suspended elective surgeries that take place at its Wortman Surgery Center to dedicate staff to inpatient and emergency care.

65. Minneapolis-based Allina Health is delaying some non-urgent procedures at three of its hospitals until at least Nov. 27, according to The Star Tribune. The delays will affect non-urgent procedures that require an overnight hospital stay. 

66. Bloomington, Minn.-based HealthPartners has started postponing some total joint surgeries, including hip or knee replacements, at three Minnesota hospitals, according to The Twin Cities Business Journal. The affected hospitals are Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, Regions Hospital in St. Paul and Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater. 

67. Southern Illinois Healthcare, a two-hospital system based in Carbondale, will reduce its elective surgery volume by about 50 percent as more people seek inpatient care for COVID-19, according to The Southern Illinoisan. The surgeries affected by the delay include those that require an overnight hospital stay.

68. University of Cincinnati Health activated surge operations Nov. 16, requiring a 50 percent reduction in elective inpatient surgeries and procedures across the health system, according to local news station WLWT.

69. Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic has started scaling back elective care to ensure it can care for patients with emergent needs and a high influx of COVID-19 patients, according to The Post Bulletin. 

70. Citing a 1,500 percent increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations between Nov. 1 and Nov. 17, Lake Health in Concord Township, Ohio, is pausing elective surgeries that require an overnight stay, according to The News-Herald. The pause will continue through Nov. 20, but the system will reevaluate if the pause needs to be extended on a weekly basis. 

71. Cook County Health, the public hospital system based in Chicago, is suspending elective surgeries requiring inpatient stays, according to WBEZ. The decision was made to ensure adequate staffing to care for an influx in COVID-19 cases.  

72. Urbana, Ill.-based Carle Foundation Hospital has canceled some elective procedures that require an overnight hospital stay in an effort to free up beds and staff to care for COVID-19 patients, according to The News Gazette.

73. Elkhart (Ind.) General Hospital stopped all elective surgeries Nov. 17 after more than 200 patients were admitted to its 144-bed hospital, according to The New York Times. Of those patients 90 were being treated with COVID-19. The hospital also diverted ambulances during this time.

74. Advocate Aurora Health, with dual headquarters in Milwaukee and Downers Grove, Ill., has started reducing elective procedures by 50 percent at some of its facilities, according to a Nov. 16 media briefing. The health system said that more hospitals will look into the option to postpone elective procedures later the week of Nov. 16. 

75. The University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City started postponing some elective surgeries to free up inpatient beds Nov. 12.

76. St. Luke's Health System in Boise, Idaho, will stop scheduling certain elective surgeries and procedures through Dec. 25, according to a company news release. The temporary delay starts Nov. 16. St. Luke's medical centers in Boise, Meridian, Magic Valley and Nampa will also cancel elective cases requiring an overnight stay scheduled for the week of Nov. 16, according to the news release. 

77. Citing an increased demand for inpatient beds, Ascension Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc, Mich., will not schedule any new inpatient elective surgeries until at least Nov. 30. The hospital said it has asked surgeons to "thoughtfully examine" already scheduled cases requiring extended recovery through Nov. 30.

78. SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital in Madison began rescheduling nonemergent surgeries to free up intensive care unit bed space, according to local news station NBC 15.

79. Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Mercy Medical Center will reduce elective surgery cases through Nov. 20. It also temporarily stopped scheduling new elective procedures.

80. Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria, Ore., will reduce some elective procedures due to an increase in COVID-19 cases, according to the Cannon Beach Gazette.

81. St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare will postpone some elective surgery cases at all 15 of its hospitals and ambulatory care settings starting Nov. 16. The surgery postponement will last eight weeks. The announcement comes just one week after the health system started rescheduling nonemergency surgeries at four of its hospitals.

82. Baxter County Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home, Ark., said Nov. 11 it will begin postponing nonemergency surgeries. The hospital will only defer procedures requiring an overnight hospital stay in order to free up beds for COVID-19 patients. 

83. Portland, Ore.-based Legacy Health will reduce the number of elective procedures requiring an overnight hospital stay by 25 percent.

"We will monitor the situation and adjust as needed," Trent Green, Legacy Health COO, wrote in an email to staff. "If the number of hospitalized patients continues to grow, we may cancel more surgeries. As hospital volumes lower, we will add back elective surgeries."

84. Kaiser Permanente Northwest, which has hospitals in Oregon and southwest Washington state, is implementing a "scheduling pause" at some of its Oregon medical centers through Dec. 31.

85. Portland-based Oregon Health & Sciences University is implementing voluntary elective surgery deferrals. The hospital system will evaluate surgical cases daily to ensure it has the appropriate capacity to care for all patients.

86. Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth began postponing some nonemergency surgeries due to a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations. The health system will defer nonemergent surgeries that require inpatient admission. The health system began postponing some of those surgeries the week of Nov. 2.

87. Holy Family Hospital in Spokane, Wash., is starting to delay some elective procedures to ensure capacity and staffing to care for an influx of COVID-19 patients and emergent cases, according to The Spokesman-Review.

88. Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet, Minn., has halted some elective surgeries to free up beds amid a surge in hospitalizations.

89. Sarah Bush Lincoln, a 145-bed hospital in Mattoon, Ill., is postponing most inpatient elective surgeries due to bed capacity constraints. The hospital said it will make the decision on whether to postpone a surgery on a case-by-case basis. 

90. Memorial Health System in Springfield, Ill., will begin delaying some nonurgent surgeries Nov. 16.

91. Evanston, Ill.-based NorthShore University HealthSystem, has started evaluating elective surgeries on a case-by-case basis and delaying those that can be postponed safely.

92. UnityPoint Health Meriter in Madison, Wis., is rescheduling nonemergent surgeries that require overnight stays to save beds for COVID-19 patients. The hospital has seen a "significant" uptick in COVID-19-related hospitalizations, with about one-third of UnityPoint Meriter's beds occupied by patients with the virus.

93. St. Luke's, a two-hospital system in Duluth, Minn., is postponing nonemergency surgeries amid a surge in COVID-19 patients. The health system said it will only delay surgeries that require an overnight stay and can be rescheduled safely.

94. Omaha, Neb.-based Methodist Health System began postponing elective surgeries at its flagship hospital Oct. 29, president and CEO Steve Goeser told Becker's. It is reviewing the surgery schedule to determine which ones can be postponed safely.

95. Omaha-based Nebraska Medicine is limiting nonurgent procedures due to a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations. The health system said that it has enough beds, but high-level intensive care unit providers "aren't an infinite resource."

96. CHI Health in Omaha, Neb., said that some nonurgent procedures will be postponed amid the COVID-19 resurgence. By postponing some surgeries, CHI Health said it aims to free up beds and capacity for patients.

97. Sanford Health, a 46-hospital system based in Sioux Falls, S.D., will begin rescheduling some nonemergency inpatient surgeries that require an overnight hospital stay due to an influx of COVID-19 patients. 

98. Bryan Health, based in Lincoln, Neb., will begin scaling back elective surgeries requiring an overnight hospitalization due to a rise in COVID-19 cases. The system said it will decrease elective surgeries requiring overnight stay by 10 percent for the week of Nov. 2 to ensure it is able to care for COVID-19 patients and perform essential surgeries.

99. Mayo Clinic Health System began deferring elective procedures at its hospitals in Northwest Wisconsin Oct. 31 amid an escalation of COVID-19 cases. The health system did not say when elective procedures will restart. The Mayo Clinic Health System has clinics, hospitals and other facilities across Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

100. Madison, Wis.-based UW Health is postponing a small number of elective procedures to free up bed capacity to care for COVID-19 patients, according to WKOW. Jeff Pothof, MD, UW Health's chief quality officer, said that patients may be asked to push back a non-emergency procedure by about a week. 

101. Saint Vincent Hospital in Erie, Pa., will postpone a small number of elective procedures after some patients and caregivers tested positive for COVID-19. The hospital did not specify the number of patients and staff who tested positive. 

102. Maury Regional Medical Center in Columbia, Tenn., will suspend elective procedures requiring an overnight stay for two weeks. Hospital leadership will re-evaluate the feasibility of elective surgeries by Nov. 9.

103. Cookeville (Tenn.) Regional Medical Center said Oct. 26 it suspended elective procedures requiring an overnight stay after it was caring for a record high of 71 COVID-19 patients, according to WKRN.

104. Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Hospital canceled elective procedures after its intensive care unit hit capacity on Oct. 16. The hospital said it needed to postpone the elective care to allocate staff to care for critically ill patients. 

105. Biddeford-based Southern Maine Health Care has postponed some elective surgeries due to an influx of patients, according to The Press-Herald. The hosptial said even before the pandemic, sometimes these surgeries needed to be rescheduled due to capacity constraints. 

106. Billings (Mont.) Clinic began evaluating each surgical case for urgency in late September. It is postponing those it says can wait, according to The Wall Street Journal.

 

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