Alaska emergency room patients wait hours in their cars as hospital rations care

Alaska’s largest hospital announced Tuesday that a relentless coronavirus outbreak driven by the highly contagious delta virus variant has left emergency room patients waiting hours in their vehicles and forced medical teams to ration care.

Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage said it was operating under “crisis standards of care” — procedures put in place to prioritize resources in a way that may leave some patients with substandard care.