I'm very biased on this topic as I have a financial incentivization to be so but all these stories highlight a problem that pre-dates COVID and will exist long after COVID is "over": an American healthcare system that is wildly dependent on facility stays and that make hospital case managers and discharge planners czars over client's care options. People should stop the handwringing about bed counts at hospitals and SNFs and start asking why we think so many people need have 3, 4, or 5 day stays in these facilities for relatively minor issues when skilled home health services exist, have better outcomes, and are cheaper for insurance programs.
Obviously hospitals and SNFs need to exist for our truly sickest and frailest in the most acute of situations but some random old dude breaking his foot and needing PT and ortho care had little business being in the hospital for more than 12 hours aside from "the hospital stops making fucking money the second they discharge him."