100,000 unnecessary surgeries performed by hospitals in the first year of the pandemic –

According to one report, more than 100,000 “unnecessary” surgeries were performed by US hospitals in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Lown Institute, a health think tank in Boston, Massachusetts, said in its first report on the matter, health centers have barely stopped any of these unnecessary surgeries despite the pandemic.

Surgery was marked as unnecessary if there was evidence of no greater benefit than an alternative, such as prescription drugs. Cardiac stents, hysterectomies, and back pain procedures were included in the list.

Nearly half of unnecessary surgeries involved stents for stable coronary heart disease, most performed by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in California.

In the first three months after Covid struck the United States, hospitals struggled to get patients through their doors, and many stayed away for fear of contracting the virus.

But when winter came, wards were overflowing with patients amid a massive wave that proved to be the deadliest of the pandemic.

Dr. Institute head Vikas Saini said: “You couldn’t go to your local cafe, but hospitals were bringing people in for all sorts of unnecessary procedures.

“The fact that a pandemic has barely slowed things down shows how entrenched overuse is in American healthcare.”

The Lown Institute reviewed data on Medicare claims — federal health insurance coverage for people 65 and older — for 2020.

He requested eight procedures that the institute deemed unnecessary.

These include stents – in which a cement mixture is injected into a vertebra – in addition to vertebroplasty for osteoporosis – and hysterectomies, where the uterus is removed for benign cancer patients.

In stent surgery, a wire mesh is placed in a closed coronary artery to reopen it, increasing the flow of oxygenated blood to the heart and reducing the risk of a heart attack.

However, an expanding pool of research for more than a decade shows that this procedure provides no more benefits than taking medications to alleviate high blood pressure and cholesterol. This includes 2012 JAMA Internal Medicine Meta-analysis.

Vertebroplasty is normally only recommended for people with a fractured vertebra to relieve pain, though after other treatments such as bed rest and back support have failed.

Studies initially suggested that the procedure offered no benefit for pain relief.

But in 2016, another trial called STEAM was conducted in Australia, which showed that it can help with pain if done within six weeks of onset, and if the pain is severe enough to require hospitalization.

A hysterectomy may not be necessary in cases where the growth is benign or has not spread, as this simply means that the tumor needs to be removed.

The procedures were performed at a time when the nation was moving in and out of the bloc and many beds were being converted to treat Covid patients.

At the height of the crisis, data are available that 15,000 people with COVID were hospitalized each day as of December 2020.

The researchers added that stenting procedures have been misused in the United States, including in the top 20 hospitals.

Dr. Saini added: “We’ve known for over a decade that we shouldn’t have placed so many stents in patients with stable coronary artery disease, but we still do.

“As a cardiologist, it’s frustrating to see this behavior continue at such a high level, especially during the pandemic.”

The American Hospitals Association said care delays and cancellations can negatively impact patients.

He added Fierce Healthcare’s reports: ‘Lown may describe these services as ‘low value’, but they can be of tremendous value to patients who receive them.’

The overall use of healthcare in America has increased during the pandemic, and many Americans fear going to hospitals and clinics for non-Covid reasons.

A study published last year by Avalere found that use among paying Medicare patients decreased by 42% in the first three months of the pandemic (March, April and May 2020) compared to the same months in 2019.

This has resulted in hospitals facing declining revenues as lucrative procedures like hip and knee replacements are interrupted, both to comply with social distancing rules and to make room in facilities to adapt to the wave of Covid patients. .

Despite the growing need for doctors during this period, hospitals have had to lay off staff to offset their bills, with more than 250 reporting layoffs in the first six months of the pandemic.