LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraskans who need certain types of surgeries will need to wait longer under a public health measure that will continue through October.
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts announced Wednesday that he was extending the measure through Oct. 31 to help short-staffed hospitals cope with existing patients. The directed health measure had been scheduled to expire on Thursday.
The order applies to inpatient Class D and E elective surgeries for all acute care, critical care and children's hospitals in Nebraska. Class D and E surgeries are elective procedures that can wait four weeks or longer without substantially changing a patient's outcome.
Even so, postponing procedures such as knee surgeries could leave patients in more pain that they would have experienced if they had gotten them right away.
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The order could be extended again, depending on hospital capacity. Ricketts imposed the order to help hospitals with a glut of patients. Some of those patients were hospitalized because of the coronavirus, but most are in for other reasons.
