News Archive
Professor Terry Comments on Hospital Struggles in Pandemic Surge
02/08/2022
The latest wave of the pandemic has pushed hospitals beyond capacity due to the high volume of patients and a shortage of nurses and other patient-care workers, forcing them to take beds out of service and postpone elective surgeries, according to a report in the Indianapolis Business Journal.
The story included analysis by IU McKinney Law Professor Nicolas Terry, who commented on reasons that health care in Indiana has come to the brink of collapse.
“What we are seeing is a product of the chronic fragmentation of the health care system and poor data flows,” Professor Terry said. “Without centralization, it is difficult to determine where the beds are, where [ambulances] should deliver patients, et cetera.”
Professor Terry is executive director of the Hall Center for Law and Health at IU McKinney, where he teaches healthcare and health policy courses. Since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States in early 2020, he has been a frequent speaker and media expert on the U.S. response and public health consequences.
Professor Terry is one of the permanent bloggers at the Bill of Health blog, a host of “The Week in Health Law” podcast at TWIHL.com, and @nicolasterry on twitter.
