Statement of Main Ideas
COVID-19 is a disease that scientists had little information about and relied on testing sick individuals to build their data. The article outlines that autopsy can be essential in understanding how the virus affects the human body. However, in the current environment, physicians cannot perform autopsies due to budget cuts and the discovery of new diagnostic tools (Tzankov & Jonigk, 2020). For example, for the first 4 million fatal covid cases globally, only a few hundred autopsies were conducted. The paper indicates that scientists are pushing for more autopsies to be done. The author says that there was a fear that the virus would spread to the people carrying out the autopsy in the initial months of the pandemic.
Three Important Facts that the Author Uses to Support the Main Ideas
One of the facts used is that COVID-19 causes inflammation in different organs that can result in death. This is one of the reasons why it is essential to carry out autopsies for people who died of the virus to understand what is causing the swelling. Another fact is that scientists need to assemble a record of the virus’s journey through the body to gain more knowledge about the disease. Understanding how the virus affects the human body can assist in creating strategies to prevent a rise in infections (Sperhake, 2020). The other fact is that patients who experience COVID-19 and recover experience post-COVID-19 conditions that can last for many months (Aul et al., 2021). The post-COVID-19 manifestations include fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive dysfunction.
Good Counter-Argument to the Basis of this Article
Conducting autopsies is expensive due to the equipment and materials that are required. Due to COVID-19, the physicians conducting the autopsy have to wear protective materials to prevent themselves. Biosafety policies and precautionary efforts add to the cost of the process (Sapino et al., 2020). As a result of advancements in technology, there are new methods to understand the causes of death due to the virus.
Hospitals may be unable to support the performance of post-mortems for every patient that dies because of COVID-19. As indicated in the article, most of the hospitals rejected the requests of pathologists to conduct autopsies within the first few months of the pandemic. Technology can help bridge this gap and reduce the fears of pathologists and nurses (Salerno et al., 2020). It will also help in reducing the costs when conducting post-mortems on a large number of specimens. Imaging technology that provides high-quality pictures and can scan the entire body is fast and provides specific benefits.
How the Article Relates to the Management Theories Discussed
The COVID-19 pandemic presented a crisis that impacted aspects of organization sustainability. For most health care centers, the virus raised major social, economic, and environmental issues. These issues include the protection of staff, staff layoffs, risk of bankruptcy, and possible effects on air quality (de Lucas Ancillo et al., 2021). The article talks about decision-making during the earliest stages of the pandemic. Most hospitals preferred to limit the autopsies that were to be done on patients who had succumbed due to the virus. The decisions were made to protect the staff because little information was available on how long the virus lasted on particular surfaces.
Another aspect discussed in the paper is the collaboration between different people in the workplace. Hospitals relied on collaborations between doctors from various agencies to get more information on the virus. The creation of an environment where staff can cooperate is essential in enhancing productivity. Improvement of service quality is an aspect of management that has been highlighted by the author. The main aim of increasing the number of post-mortems is to achieve more knowledge of the disease. This, in turn, enhances the quality of services that health centers offer to patients with the virus.
Example of Bias or Faulty Reasoning in the Article
The article highlights the expensive nature of autopsies as one of the reasons why it is hard for the hospital to authorize them. The author indicates that a post-mortem in Maryland may cost between $2000-$4000. The cost may be a problem for individuals, but for hospitals, it should not be viewed as a challenge. This is because hospitals gain from the information they collect from post-mortems (Borasio et al., 2020).
The data can be useful in assisting physicians in providing better care for patients. Autopsies have been carried out for many years as a way of understanding what caused the death of an individual. The current times indicate a reduction in the number of post-mortems due to a variety of factors. The emergence of new and cheaper methods provides a snippet into how autopsies may be conducted in the future. However, diseases such as COVID-19 present challenges that prompt a rethink into the way post-mortems should be conducted. More research needs to be done on the strategies that can be used to perform cheaper post-mortems to ensure doctors get more data on the disease.
References
Aul, R., Gates, J., Draper, A., Dunleavy, A., Ruickbie, S., Meredith, H., Walters, N., van Zeller, C., Taylor, V., Bridgett, M., Dunwoody, R., Grubnic, S., Jacob, T., & Ong, Y. E. (2021). Complications after discharge with COVID-19 infection and risk factors associated with the development of post-COVID pulmonary fibrosis. Respiratory Medicine, 188, 106602. Web.
Borasio, G. D., Gamondi, C., Obrist, M., & Jox, R. (2020). COVID-19: Decision making and palliative care. Swiss Medical Weekly, 150(1314). Web.
de Lucas Ancillo, A., del Val Núñez, M. T., & Gavrila, S. G. (2021). Workplace change within the COVID-19 context: A grounded theory approach. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 34(1), 2297-2316. Web.
Salerno, M., Sessa, F., Piscopo, A., Montana, A., Torrisi, M., Patanè, F., Murabito, P., Li Volti, G., & Pomara, C. (2020). No autopsies on COVID-19 deaths: a missed opportunity and the lockdown of science. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(5), 1472. Web.
Sapino, A., Facchetti, F., Bonoldi, E., Gianatti, A., & Barbareschi, M. (2020). The autopsy debate during the COVID-19 emergency: The Italian experience. Virchows Archiv, 476(6), 821-823. Web.
Sperhake, J. P. (2020). Autopsies of COVID-19 deceased? Absolutely!Legal Medicine, 47, 101769. Web.
Tzankov, A., & Jonigk, D. (2020). Unlocking the lockdown of science and demystifying COVID-19: How autopsies contribute to our understanding of a deadly pandemic. Web.