Since the Media has been telling us that the Hospitals are Rapidly Running Out of Capacity" for over 5 months, they should all be operating at something like 437.8 % of capacity....
Or else (and I find this hard to believe) that they have been lying to us for a while.
5 comments:
...The latter...
Either or...
Or maybe the people kept getting better ???? The numbers rise and fall as some go home and new ones get sick. Also SOME hospitals have converted unused space into Covid beds actually adding to available space . As I know many people working in hospitals ( both friends and part of my job ) clearly some hospitals are running out of space. Also not a huge surprise that 5-14 days after Thanksgiving there would be a huge increase in patients.
The reason hospitals are "at or near capacity" is because they have been forced to reduce their capacity by 50% or more.
I'm friends with our local EMA director and according to him, the state health department forced hospitals to close to all but covid and emergency patients.
For example, our largest hospital is 5 floors. The first floor is administration, emergency, ICU, and surgical suites.
The top two floors are closed off completely. Floors 2 and 3 are covid wards, sealed and divided between patients who can breathe on their own and patients on vents. They have never been full to capacity.
ICU and surgery are open only to life-and-death emergency care. No non-emergency surgery is permitted at all. The emergency department is not allowed to admit anyone who is not literally dying.
The hospital (privately owned) asked the state health bureau to let them start treating non covid patients because they're going broke without the revenue stream they rely on. Hospitals are only allowed to purchase PPE through the state health bureau and were told that if they treat any non covid or emergency patients they would not be allowed to purchase PPE.
Perhaps it would be more accurate ( in some cases) to state that available Covid 19 beds are at or near capacity. Some regulations vary from state to state but I think overall you are correct . Most often only ER and ICU plus possibly/probably birthing rooms. Another consideration is hospitals are having a hell of a time finding additional staff willing to work Covid 19 floors. Many wont work them. Any RRT that want to work Covid are probably working AND in many cases making extra bonus pay besides ( In some cases bonus for RRT approach 2-5x normal pay). Some hospitals are paying RNs, NPs, PAs and RRTs Huge bonuses up to hundreds per week if they will work Covid 19. If you work a Covid 19 unit you cant hang with friends or family outside those living at home and SOME were discouraged from hanging with those living at home though that has been generally relaxed. I personally know of people who sat in a hospital hallway for 48 hours because there were no beds open and a friend who was checked out by an ambulance crew and then turned away from the ambulance because she hadn't " turned blue" and there were no beds available withing 80 miles.
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