8 votes

NPR Hospital bed utilization lookup tool

Posted December 10, 2020 by AugustusFerdinand

Tags: healthcare, coronaviruses.covid19, hospitals, usa, data visualization, author.sean mcminn, author.audrey carlsen, source.npr

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/12/09/944379919/new-data-reveal-which-hospitals-are-dangerously-full-is-yours

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Title: New Data Reveal Which Hospitals Are Dangerously Full. Is Yours?
Authors: Sean McMinn, Audrey Carlsen
Published: Dec 9 2020
Word count: 247 words

4 comments

AugustusFerdinand (OP)
December 10, 2020
Link
Of note 80-85% for large hospitals and 45% for small hospitals is the normal target bed utilization rate for hospitals.

Of note 80-85% for large hospitals and 45% for small hospitals is the normal target bed utilization rate for hospitals.

2 votes
nacho
December 10, 2020
Link
This weekend is around the time most experts expected a post-Thanksgiving increase. The expected peak of this second wave many places is expected at the end of December. Now the peaks are...

This weekend is around the time most experts expected a post-Thanksgiving increase.

The expected peak of this second wave many places is expected at the end of December.

Now the peaks are happening almost everywhere around the same time, where before this summer there was excess medical capacity around the country that could be moved elsewhere as needed.

With that backdrop, these numbers are scarily high already. The US had its highest corona-death day yesterday with over 3000 dead in a single day. That record looks like it'll be beat multiple times before New years.

Stay safe!

2 votes
[2]
teaearlgraycold
December 10, 2020
Link
There are quite a few hospitals with over 100% bed utilization. Does that mean people are on the floor? Does the surplus mean they've added more beds than they're normally allowed to have per room?

There are quite a few hospitals with over 100% bed utilization. Does that mean people are on the floor? Does the surplus mean they've added more beds than they're normally allowed to have per room?

1 vote
1. skybrian
  December 10, 2020
  Link Parent
  I would guess that capacity is based on licensed beds or something like that, and may not account for whatever plans they make for surge capacity. For ICU beds in particular, apparently a regular...
  
  I would guess that capacity is based on licensed beds or something like that, and may not account for whatever plans they make for surge capacity.
  
  For ICU beds in particular, apparently a regular bed with a ventilator will do, if they have the staff. From an article about ICU beds in Monterey:
  
  Since the start of the pandemic, Radner has objected to answering questions about ICU bed capacity and today opened his statements to the board by saying there was an "obsession" with using ICU beds as a metric since the state tied restrictions to ICU capacity.
  
  "Unfortunately that's a very complicated and nuanced number," he said. All four of Monterey County's hospitals had increased their ICU capacity with "surge" beds. "The reality is we can turn any bed into an ICU bed if we have a ventilator," he added.
  
  But it also depends on nursing staff availability, Radner said: "Depending on which number you look at, we are anywhere between 40- to 100-percent filled in our ICUs."
  
  On the other hand, I've read elsewhere that a hospital doesn't need to be completely full for it to cause a backup, where patients are waiting in emergency room beds for regular beds to open up. Also, as hospitals get more full, in marginal cases they might be a bit stricter about deciding whether someone should be admitted in marginal cases.
  
  3 votes