Hospitals Are Stepping up Steroid Use in the Fight Against COVID-19

Photo of author

(Newswire.net — July 1, 2020) — There has been a lot of chatter about essential workers over the past few months, and it remains clear for all to see that our healthcare professionals remain the most important frontline workers when it comes to combating the continued spread of COVID-19. Hospitals and related healthcare facilities like nursing homes have been beset by a shortage of qualified workers for years, and the ongoing crisis has pushed them to their limits in many cases. This is one reason among many that hospitals are beginning to step up the usage of certain steroids in the fight against COVID-19, some of which haven’t yet been proven to be safe for long-term usage.

Hospitals everywhere are choosing to employ a risky gambit if it means saving lives. In some cases, these steroids are working wonders, whereas elsewhere they’re providing lackluster results which may come to haunt healthcare providers in the future.

Sick patients are being given dexamethasone

It’s very understandable if you’ve never heard of dexamethasone before, as this cheap steroid was virtually unknown to the public before the spread of COVID-19 shut down our economy and led to the present surge in hospitalized individuals that’s bringing our healthcare system to its knees. Over the past few weeks, however, dexamethasone has become increasingly popular as hospitals are beginning to administer it to sick COVID-19 patients who have few other options when it comes to overcoming the virus and becoming healthy again.

According to one report from Reuters, American hospitals in hard-hit regions are particularly dependent upon dexamethasone when it comes to combating COVID-19, though the long-term health effects of this steroid are still not entirely understood. Healthcare facilities everywhere are beset by serious financial difficulties and the challenges of social distancing, which in many cases have exacerbated underlying economic difficulties that hospitals and other facilities were already facing before this virus. Many are now arguing that our hospitals need a bailout if they’re going to emerge intact from the era of COVID-19.

This is an interesting time to invest in a med spa franchise or similar healthcare facility. Nursing homes in particular have been hit hard by this virus, and hospitals that could normally host two patients in a room are now forced to give each patient their own room in an effort to maintain vital social distancing standards. This has led to financial difficulties which may not be overcome for years. Some hospitals are still waiting to see if dexamethasone creates more problems than it solves before employing it to treat the worst of their COVID-19 patients, but others feel as if they have no other choice when it comes to saving lives.

The jury is still out on dexamethasone, and we likely won’t have concrete information about its ability to impact COVID-19 patients for a few more weeks. Nevertheless, some hospitals are so seriously endangered by the continued spread of the virus that they feel as if steroid injections are the only surefire way to help patients recover. While it may produce unfortunate results for some, positive outcomes in certain healthcare facilities continue to give medical professionals hope that this steroid and other treatment options could help diminish the death toll brought about by the virus.