For reasons varying from COVID-19 concerns to job insecurity, many patients still are opting out of elective surgeries.
Alfonso del Granado, the administrator of Covenant High Plains Surgery Center in Lubbock, Texas, spoke to Becker's ASC Review on why he thinks case volumes are still lagging.
Here are the two reasons stalling the return to normal case volumes:
Alfonso del Granado:
1. Some patients still have concerns about having surgery while COVID-19 is around. This makes some sense since perioperative COVID-19 mortality and complication rates are dangerously high, and while the risks of infection are very low, the potential for suboptimal outcomes weighs heavily in their assessments.
2. While unemployment is improving, it has not returned to pre-COVID levels. Even those with jobs still suffer from job insecurity and want to hold onto their cash, especially given concerns about the government ending extended unemployment benefits.