Hi all!

Hope everyone had some good holidays! I wanted to touch base on how horribly the hospitals are doing here in Indianapolis. They have postponed 50+ surgeries at my bariatric center and they claim that it’s happening all over Indianapolis at the other 3 places. They say it’s due to low staff and Covid.

Anyone here in Indy waiting on a surgery date?

Also anyone else from ANY state had to postpone surgery due to Covid during this time?

to give a ball park- I completed EVERYTHING in October even though I would have been done months before that but they couldn’t fit me in to get the rest of my pre-op testing done. Got approved for insurance and January 4th I’m still waiting on a surgery date.

That's really hard. I have already had my surgery, but I was so worried it would get postponed due to COVID. Luckily, back in September, numbers were okay here in Boston, but now it's terrible. I'm sure most people are having their surgeries cancelled.

I'm so sorry it's such a let down... This Omicron seems to be passing through cities pretty quickly, based on UK and NYC data, so hopefully they'll be able to get you back on the schedule soon!

I’m so sorry this is happening to you. I know I would have been so upset if anything delayed my surgery. Try to take advantage of the time by practicing you new habits for post surgery. Eating slowly has been the hardest thing for me to master. I am almost 9 months out and my husband still has to remind me to slow down.

I’m in Pennsylvania and scheduled for surgery on Feb 2. The scheduler pretty much told me to expect to be rescheduled, as did my coordinator. I’m trying not to fixate on the date, it will happen when it happens… but it is a bit nerve wracking. I’m scared and anxious about the surgery, and I’m trying to mentally prepare to be ok that day, so if the date keeps shifting my anxiety will be all over the place.

Surprisingly in New York (Columbia New York Presbyterian) everything was on track for me, got the surgery on Nov 29th and my doctor told me they haven’t had to postpone anyone.

Then again it is one of the bigger hospitals in the country.

Edited January 4, 20224 yr by Valboosky

I had my surgery in August, when COVID was still bad where I live (South Texas). Surgery was on a Monday, but it was not confirmed until the Friday before -- they needed to make sure they would have a post-op bed available for me.

FWIW, not American, but I live in what I believe they have at #1 in the rankings for COVID cases right now. Our hospitals are fine, even if staffing is an issue here, too (pandemic or not).

90%+ are omicron cases now, vax rate is high; both factors help.

Director of the entire region's hospitals came out a few days ago and said yeah, we're fine, despite having a lot of COVID cases here ... but that's not why they're here, it's just that everyone gets infected these days!

I’m in Massachusetts and so far all hospitals must cancel non-essential elective surgeries. Our governor also deployed the National Guard to help in our hospitals due to the staff shortages. My husband works at one of our trauma centers and he mentioned that there are staff out with COVID. The hospitals here are so full they’re bursting at the seem. In the Boston area approximately 1000 school teachers and other employees tested positive for COVID. Official said it appears it’s from the holidays.

Locally they're postponing/cancelling all elective surgeries right now since there's been a surge of COVID cases after the holidays. The hospitals just don't have enough beds to keep up with COVID patients plus regular sick patients and adding to that elective patients. Don't know how long it'll be that way.

it depends on where you are, but yea - it's happening all over the country.