美國醫院正在建立類似馬戲團的分診帳篷，要求醫生退出退休生活，保護他們的口罩用品，並計劃取消選修手術，因為他們準備接受冠狀病毒患者的猛烈攻擊。
根據危機的嚴重程度，病人可能會發現自己在急診室走廊的擔架上等待打開醫院的病床，或者可能被要求與其他感染者共用房間。一些醫生擔心醫院會變得不堪重負，以至於他們可能被迫分配醫療服務。
美國急診醫師學院院長威廉·賈奎斯博士警告說：“這將對我們的衛生系統造成相當大的壓力。”
美國仍處於活躍的流感季節，許多醫院已經開始以足夠的能力照顧這些患者。埃默裡大學醫學院的傳染病專家布魯斯·裡伯納博士說，新病毒只會增加這種負擔。
政府衛生部門正在採取緊急措施，放棄某些法律和法規，以幫助醫院應對危機。醫院也正在準備中。
2020年3月13日，星期五，這張照片顯示了在西哥倫比亞列剋星敦醫療中心醫院外建立的帳篷，SCUS醫院正在搭建帳篷進行測試，取消擇期手術，呼籲退休醫生尋求幫助以及應對他們不得不配給的可能性當他們為預期的冠狀病毒患者襲擊做準備時進行治療。 （美聯社照片/莎拉·布雷克·摩根）
為了防止可疑的冠狀病毒患者與急診室中的其他人混雜在一起，緬因州路易斯頓市的中央緬因州醫療中心在停車場設置了一個帳篷，用於轉移有呼吸道症狀的人進行測試。南卡羅來納州西哥倫比亞的列剋星敦醫療中心在急診室外也做了同樣的事情。
在西雅圖，全美冠狀病毒死亡人數最多，其中大部分死於郊區養老院，UW Medicine在醫院停車場進行了直通測試，並篩選了數百名員工，教職員工和受訓人員，護士到達通過車窗並用棉籤從人的鼻孔中收集標本。預計將在週一向患者提供駕駛測試。
急診醫生羅伯特·戴維森（Robert Davidson）在密歇根州弗裡蒙特市的頻譜健康格柏紀念醫院表示，如果爆發該地區，可能會推遲進行髖關節和膝關節置換手術以及其他非緊急情況的手術。紐約州和伊利諾伊州的當局正在談論這樣做。
如果爆發疫情，“紀念館醫療系統”首席醫療官Raj Govindaiah博士說：“現在不需要立即做的事，”該醫院在迪凱特的林肯斯普林菲爾德市設有醫院，伊利諾伊州傑克遜維爾和泰勒維爾。
Govindaiah說，醫院還把通常提供給遊客的免費贈品手術口罩藏在大廳裡，以便醫生和護士可以在用品緊的情況下使用它們。在北卡羅來納州雲杉松的小山社區的藍嶺地區醫院，防毒口罩被鎖定並受到視頻監控。
藍嶺地區的加布裡埃爾·卡德（Gabriel Cade）博士說：“我們真的必須……希望這會很糟糕。” “意大利的局勢令人大開眼界。”
州長安德魯·庫莫（Andrew Cuomo）說，在紐約州爆發的大規模疫情中，衛生部正在加快法規，以使護理學生獲得工作更迅速的認證，並要求退休的醫生和護士提供服務。
本週，美國醫院協會，美國醫學協會和美國護士協會要求總統緊急聲明，該聲明允許醫生和護士跨州工作，並放棄某些規則以騰出病床。在卡特里娜颶風和豬流感爆發期間也發表了類似的聲明。
特朗普還宣佈與主要企業建立政府合作關係，以建立直通測試中心和一個網站，以幫助那些認為自己可能感染該病毒的人。這些測試地點可能包括沃爾瑪，塔吉特，沃爾格林和其他主要連鎖店的停車場。
華盛頓大學醫學中心設立的駕駛式冠狀病毒測試站的一名護士使用藥簽在2020年3月13日星期五在西雅圖的汽車上從一個人的鼻子上取了一個樣本。 UW Medicine正在醫院停車場進行測試，並已對數百名員工，教職員工和受訓人員進行了COVID-19篩查。美國醫院正在建立分診帳篷，叫醫生退休，保護他們的口罩用品，並制定計劃
by LINDSEY TANNER AP Medical Writer
Saturday, March 14th 2020
U.S. hospitals are setting up circus-like triage tents, calling doctors out of retirement, guarding their supplies of face masks and making plans to cancel elective surgery as they brace for an expected onslaught of coronavirus patients.
Depending on how bad the crisis gets, the sick could find themselves waiting on stretchers in emergency room hallways for hospital beds to open up, or could be required to share rooms with others infected. Some doctors fear hospitals could become so overwhelmed that they could be forced to ration medical care.
"This is going to be a fairly tremendous strain on our health system," warned Dr. William Jaquis, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
The United States is still facing an active flu season, and many hospitals are already running at capacity caring for those patients. The new virus will only add to that burden, said Dr. Bruce Ribner an infectious-disease specialist at Emory University's medical school.
Government health authorities are taking emergency steps to waive certain laws and regulations to help hospitals deal with the crisis. Hospitals, too, are getting ready.
To keep suspected coronavirus patients from mingling with others in the ER, the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine, set up a tent in the parking lot where people with respiratory symptoms are diverted for testing. Lexington Medical Center in West Columbia, South Carolina, did the same outside its emergency room.
In Seattle, hit by the nation's biggest cluster of coronavirus deaths, most of them at a suburban nursing home, UW Medicine set up drive-thru testing in a hospital parking garage and has screened hundreds of staff members, faculty and trainees, with nurses reaching through car windows and using swabs to collect specimens from people's nostrils . Drive-thru testing is expected to be offered to patients as soon as Monday.
At Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial Hospital in Fremont, Michigan, Robert Davidson, an emergency medicine doctor, said hip and knee replacement surgery and other operations that aren't emergencies might be postponed if an outbreak hits the area. Authorities in New York state and Illinois are talking about doing the same.
If an outbreak hits, "things that don't need to be done right now won't be done right now," said Dr. Raj Govindaiah, chief medical officer for Memorial Health System, which runs hospitals in Springfield, Lincoln, Decatur, Jacksonville and Taylorville, Illinois.
Govindaiah said the hospitals are also hiding the freebie surgical masks usually offered to visitors in the lobby, so that doctors and nurses can use them instead if supplies run tight. At Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in the small mountain community of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, respirator masks are locked and under video surveillance.
"We've really got to ... expect that this is going to be bad," said Blue Ridge Regional's Dr. Gabriel Cade. "The situation in Italy is a huge eye-opener."
In New York state, which has a large outbreak, the Health Department is accelerating regulations to get nursing students certified to work more quickly and is asking retired doctors and nurses to offer their services, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
This week, the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association asked for a presidential emergency declaration that would allow doctors and nurses to work across state lines and would waive certain rules to free up hospital beds. Similar declarations were issued during Hurricane Katrina and the swine flu outbreak.
On Friday, President Donald Trump responded by issuing an emergency declaration and said he was giving the U.S. health secretary authority to waive federal regulations and laws to give doctors and hospitals "flexibility" in treating patients.
Trump also announced a government partnership with major businesses to set up drive-thru testing centers and a website to help people who think they might have the virus. Those testing locations could include parking lots at Walmart, Target, Walgreens and other major chains.
很美國的檢測方式，不用下車，直接在車上等醫生來檢測。
為什麼說很美國呢？是因為在美國，去銀行、餐廳，都有專門的DRIVE通道，不下車就可以辦理。
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