Candid Journal Entry #13: The Work Today
So, how has COVID-19 affected the volume of work at my department? The stats have been out and there's a stark difference in workload.
Dropping from 14117 to 10308 is a ~27% drop. I do not know how many of those are elective surgeries, but I am willing to bet that they made up a significant portion. My state did not resume most of them until early this month.
Even without knowing the actual pricing of services, that's a lot of work not performed. Can you imagine the revenue lost in that time? Is it a surprise that some health professionals had their hours cut because of the outbreak?
One thing I would like to point out is that Utah's stay at home directive came around mid-March. So, the previous month stat is already a number at reduced workload.
Let me recall the stats from beginning of the year.
Yeah, I do not have the numbers for February, so this is the closest I have.
We were at almost 19K tests performed for January this year. By April, we were doing almost half of that, about 46% less. That's how much the pandemic has affected my department alone. That is some serious drop in revenue over the course of a quarter. From surgeries to lab work, I'm sure they amount to millions.
In one of my previous posts, I mentioned how my department picked up an antigen test for COVID-19. Which by the way, I think it would be a fun one to write about. Aside from compare and contrast with the current PCR and serology methods, it's for volume. At the end of the day, the lab is a business. It needs to stay afloat or people will lose jobs.
Even as I type this out, the hospitals are preparing for a second wave, but we hope it never comes. Many of my colleagues hope it would be like the first SARS outbreak where the bug fizzled out into the summer.
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Just a question: Does the "previous" column refer to the previous month or the previous year?
Previous month.
Thanks for clarifying! Any vision on how things will evolve in Utah in the next weeks? Or is it obscure?
In terms of COVID? Well, the incidence curve is on the rise.
The percentage breakdown of things stayed relatively the same. So hopefully, this is due to increased testing. But... we shall see.
Increased testing is definitely where to go... I just don't understand why we are not there yet.
Well, there have been also talks of the inaccuracies of those tests.
I think that might be why my work now has at least 5 methods going between different departments.
Mine now does the antigen method. Molecular has 3 PCR methods. Chemistry has one serology method. They each detect different stages and aspect of the infection. Or so I understand.
True. But I thought some of the methods were quite good (I may be wrong here).
Why did the read time increase? Is it because you are working with a reduced staff? It seems like with fewer tests the read time would be faster. I could be totally wrong though.
With electives cancelled, the number of "no growth" or simple reads also drastically decreased.
The tests that come in during the lockdown were from inpatients and people who are probably having some sort of "emergencies". For those who had some sort of emergencies, their cultures tended to be messier.
As in, multiple organisms or those with higher resistance.
So, less overall work. More complex work.
Gotcha!