Idaho officials announced Thursday they're preparing to ration hospital care due to the COVID-19 surge, and it was the last thing next-door Washington state's top hospital advocate wanted to hear.
"It's terrible. I don't know if people understand the gravity of the situation," Cassie Sauer, chief executive of the Washington State Hospital Association, told CNN Thursday evening. "This is not something that should be happening in America at this point."
Sauer says hospitals in Washington are getting more requests to take patients from overwhelmed facilities in Idaho. In some cases, sick Idahoans are simply driving themselves across the border seeking treatment.
"The fact that it's not causing severe alarm in Idaho is shocking to me," Sauer said.