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Vanderbilt To Begin Deferring Some Non-Emergency Procedures

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VUMC Vanderbilt
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Vanderbilt is among two university hospitals pioneering new ways to expand access to the lifesaving heart transplants for adults and babies.
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center is deferring some non-emergency procedures to prepare for a potential, post-Thanksgiving “super surge.”

In a letter to staff Monday, deputy CEO C. Wright Pinson says the hospital hopes to be proven wrong about the predicted increase in cases and hospitalizations but is still preparing for it. Tennessee has a record number of COVID hospitalizations right now — with nearly 2,300 people currently hospitalized in the state.

More Nashvillians have required hospitalization as of late, and transfers to Vanderbilt from other facilities have also risen sharply. Pinson says more patients are in their 20s and 30s, and they’re sicker — with more requiring ICU care, including being put on a ventilator.

Pinson says procedures will be delayed only after a consultation with clinicians about the safety of each patient involved. Those deferred appointments will be rescheduled as quickly as possible.

VUMC has been on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19. It has led research on mask mandate effectiveness and vaccine trials.

Rachel Iacovone, Director of Multiplatform Publishing

Rachel Iacovone (YAH-kuh-VOAN-ee) is WPLN's Director of Multiplatform Publishing, which is a long way of saying she leads all the ways the news reaches you (this website, social media, This Is Nashville and more). She began her public radio career covering politics in Florida during the 2016 presidential race. In 2019, Rachel came to Nashville as a local Morning Edition, and later All Things Considered, host before her passion for data deep dives, visualizations, photography and social media storytelling pulled her off air and put her online fully.

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