Tennessee deregulates medical industry to free up supplies, staff to address coronavirus

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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order Thursday that deregulates the medical industry to free up supplies and staff to address the spread of COVID-19.

“We believe that if we continue to work hard and we continue to mitigate the spread, that we can have a health-care system that can meet the needs that we will have in the days ahead,” Lee said in a news conference.

The executive order temporarily will deregulate the scope of practice laws, which currently limit the type of care certain doctors can provide based on their licenses. This will free up doctors to assist with coronavirus patients.

The order will eliminate certain regulations on hospital beds, which will free up certain beds for use if hospitals run out of beds that fit the previous regulatory standards. It also will deregulate telemedicine. Current laws heavily restrict who can use telemedicine and for what purposes it can be used.

A crackdown on the current price gouging restrictions for food and supplies also is included in the executive order.

The federal government also has loosened some regulations. Doctors and nurses will be able to use industrial masks for procedures surrounding COVID-19. Lee said that this frees up tens of thousands of masks in the country.

Ventilators that traditionally had been used in outpatient surgery will be available for use if converted for use for COVID-19. Many hospitals used these ventilators for elective surgery, but President Donald Trump has requested that hospitals halt elective surgeries. Lee said this would free up tens of thousands of ventilators.

Lee said Tennessee has more than doubled its ventilator capacity. There currently are 537 unused ventilators in the state, and the government has ordered 570 more.

“We’re still continuing to pursue ventilators even though that’s doubling current capacity because we want to get ready in case there is a surge,” Lee said.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Tennessee Department of Health reported 154 COVID-19 cases in Tennessee.

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus. The disease has caused at least 157 deaths in the U.S. COVID-19 symptoms appear within two to 14 days after exposure and include fever, cough, runny nose and difficulty breathing.

Most people who have it develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually the elderly and those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal.

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