Having just spent a month at a Houston hospital, I can tell you that there is so much more than the facilities. The nurses on my floor knew all/most of the many doctors. They knew the protocols. They knew the best time to contact each doctor and when to wait for rounds. There were so many medications ordered for me that it was unreal. Each nursing shift passed info to the next shift like a well oiled machine and they flagged the things that they thought might not work in my particular case so that they could get a Plan B ready for me in advance. The cleaning staff had to follow strict protocols before entering my room and use specialized products to clean the room on strict schedules. The physical therapists and occupational therapists and respiratory therapists each had a role in getting me out of the hospital in the best shape possible.
Over the course of the month, there were literally hundreds of people who contributed to my successful exit from the hospital - the infectious disease team, the charge nurses, the floor nurses, the dietitians, the radiologists, the pulmonologists, cardiologists, the pharmacists, ot, pt, and the list goes on and on ending with my doctor and his team. They all worked so hard both individually and together as a team, it was mind blowing.
I cannot imagine what happens when the well oiled machine that is a hospital becomes stressed for long periods of time. I witnessed them be stressed for short periods of time---a shift when several nurses called in ill or when the pharmacy team had to figure out suitable substitutions for medications that I could not take orally. They were short term stressful periods but each person cared so much about getting it right that I could see the impact that the stress had on them. In addition, I had a personal caregiver with me 24 hours/day which took some pressure off the nursing staff. In a coronavirus situation, the patient won't have that option which adds to the nursing duties.
I pray for our local medical teams as they ready themselves to do battle with this virus while balancing their own personal obligations. Medicine is not easy under the best circumstances.
