Small rural hospitals in Kansas and Missouri are increasingly spending hours searching for facilities they can transfer patients to because they are struggling to cope with the surge in coronavirus cases.
As the region’s hospitals fill up with COVID-19 patients, smaller hospitals like the one in Holton, Kansas, are finding it difficult to treat patients who don’t have the disease but still need care.
Carrie Saia, the CEO of the hospital in Holton, says she worries about emergencies like heart attacks because her hospital's capacity is stretched thin by coronavirus patients.