Hospital system overwhelmed

[brewer]

Then that's a community/local issue that needs to be addressed at the local government level, not by hospitals in general.

When emergency conditions arise emergency contingencies are put into action. We are seeing it with covid. And yes it's not pleasant. But to say it could have been avoided if we had only ....................... I'm not buying it.

What do you mean it's a community issue?  If it's a for profit hospital, the community has no say in how it's run.  I suppose I'm in critic mode of our approach to health care nationwide.  It would be interesting to see if other countries have better preparedness than we do.

Yes, emergency contingencies are put into action, but it doesn't mean they are adequate.  I would say a nationwide pandemic is one of those things that is so unlikely that virtually no one would be willing to plan enough to be adequately prepared to deal with it.  But as I said, there are more localized events all the time and they are much more predictable.  You may not buy it until the day comes when someone you care about is sick and told its too bad but we're all full.

The community does have a say, they can go to the hospital and ask that they expand services and capacity. If the hospital management rejects the request they can start soliciting/enticing competing medical care.

I live in the real medical world, not medical utopia