This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
As the fifth anniversary of COVID-19 lockdowns approaches, bipartisan lawmakers and medical professionals across the country are rallying behind a bill that would address a growing crisis in the healthcare field.
Dr. Lorna Breen was chief of the ER department at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Known by colleagues as a tireless worker who cared about patients and protocol, Breen committed suicide while on a short break in Virginia in the midst of the pandemic to get a break from the high-pressure world of emergency medical care.
A New York Times story quoted Breen’s father as calling her death a “casualty” of the pandemic and said she had no history of mental illness, but had seemed “detached” as of late.
Proponents of the Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act told Fox News Digital that the mental strain, burnout, and stress of working in a high-pressure, life-saving field demand stronger support systems.
A recent study from a North Carolina healthcare group showed that more than half of doctor-respondents said they wouldn’t go into the primary care field if they could “do it all over again.”
According to its proponents, the Lorna Breen Act provides billions of dollars in resources to help prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among healthcare professionals.
Two longtime ER physicians who are leading the charge on the nongovernmental side of things spoke with Fox News Digital this week.
Dr. Randy Pilgrim – chief medical officer for SCP Health – and Dr. Bentley Tate, the emergency room company’s chief wellness officer – both have decades of experience working in the high-pressure field and said that now, as the U.S. looks back at the COVID-19 pandemic, is the time to bring this issue to the fore.
SCP Health works across 35…
