Posted on 12/14/2020 8:25:34 PM PST by SeekAndFind
According to federal government data reported by Just The News, hospitals nationwide have 'considerable space left to deal with both routine medical issues and COVID-19 patients," dispelling fears of overwhelmed medical systems and at-capacity hospitals which have been promoted by the usual media suspects.
For most of 2020, rising positive test results of COVID-19 have brought with them fears of swamped hospitals, overwhelmed medical systems, emergency patients being turned away, and COVID-19 patients being triaged, suffering and dying in hallways and vestibules.
Much of that fear crystallized in the early stages of the pandemic, when parts of the northern Italian medical system were put under significant strain due to a crush of COVID-19 patients. In response, leaders and medical officials around the world suspended elective surgeries and constructed emergency medical facilities to cope with anticipated waves of COVID-19 patients. -Just The News
Yet, many care facilities which beefed up resources for a flood of COVID-19 patients have been virtual ghost towns - with some being shuttered for a lack of patients despite millions of dollars devoted to their construction. In Chicago, the city spent $120 million on four facilities which have treated a total of 38 patients.
But what about the second wave?
With 'flu' season entering historically high gear and some facilities across the country reporting difficulty accommodating a large influx of patients due to a dwindling number of beds or scarce resources, federal government data compiled at the state level suggests these reports are largely outliers, and the US has ample space to deal with COVID-19 patients.
The Department of Health and Human Services offers on its website estimates of hospitalization rates across the United States. The data, the department says, is "estimated from hospital submissions, either reported through their state or reported through HHS Protect," which the department describes as "a secure data ecosystem ... for sharing, parsing, housing, and accessing COVID-19 data." (HHS did not respond to queries about any limitations or caveats to the data.)
The HHS numbers belie forecasts of impending collapse of the U.S. medical system. As of Saturday, the department estimated that hospitals nationwide were at about 75% capacity. ICU beds were even lower, at 63.5%. Patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 occupied just under 15% of all beds nationwide.
Even in areas that have recently posted huge surges in positive COVID tests, the numbers were largely similar to the national average: In New York, 76% of hospital beds (and 61% of ICU beds) were taken.
In California, where positive test results have skyrocketed, 76% of inpatient beds were likewise filled (though the ICU numbers were notably higher than New York's, at 79%).
Ohio, which has also seen a surge in positive tests over the last few months, has 71% of inpatient beds taken, and 77% of ICU beds. -Just The News
This is normal
According to Dr. Joanne Roberts, Chief Value Officer at Providence St. Joseph Health System, "a well-functioning hospital probably runs about 85% capacity on an average day," though she notes that COVID-19 can "quickly overwhelm that last 15%" because of how virulent it is, which can in turn send a flood of patients to the hospital at once.
"We've spent a whole lot of energy decreasing the other number of patients as we possibly can," said Roberts, who coordinates the St. Joseph's 51 constituent hospitals across seven states. "trying to do hospital-at-home models, stopping non-urgent procedures that require ICU space. You can't stop emergency. But you can stop some things that are coming into the hospital, say, a knee replacement."
"It's a dance that every one of our hospitals is doing today," she added. "Some are still doing elective procedures, some are not. Because governors have allowed our hospitals to figure that out, we are seeing our hospitals figure that out themselves."
That said, Roberts says none of their 51 hospitals are turning patients away at this time.
"What we have done is we've done some creative bed usage," she told Just The News' Daniel Payne. "We've done some agreements with smaller hospitals that they would send some surgical cases to us in our larger hospitals, and once the patient was stable after surgery, we'd send them back to recover in the smaller hospital."
Read the rest of the report here.
Last week I had a mind to survey all local hospitals on this. We hear news, but never check it out. Even a hospital administrator can lie like Chris Christie, so facts are rare. Be a skeptic.
More post EV news... everything’s okay now.
Thanks for posting this.
More PROOF that people are NOT ‘dying in the streets’ as the Enemy Media would have us believe!
So. SO. Tired. Of. Being. Lied. To. Daily! FOR NEARLY A YEAR!!
How I LOATHE the Enemy Media. How I LOATHE Mother Government!
(Meaning those against President Trump and, ‘We The People’!) ~
Who didn’t already know this?
The virus is real, and people are getting sick. But the commies are making the most of it.
Also, masks are nothing but imposed virtue signaling.
Well, duh.
Have Newsom or Cuomo requested that the hospital ships be re-deployed to LA or NYC?
Have any governors requested that emergency facilities be re-deployed as they were last spring?
Case closed.
We had a brand new hospital (what is now commonly called a medical center) in our area and it sat empty waiting for the surge of Covid that never came as those who desperately needed treatment had to wait. This BS second “wave” of total BS is just as bad. I had a back issue and was offered a video appointment. I will go to a place that will physically see me.
Took my kid to Cleveland Clinic ER last week. Shortest wait I ever had. Only ones in the waiting room, in and out in under an hour.
The ‘news’ we are forcefed is ALL lies.
For which I got and got roundly blasted.
I suspect that they were sending people to selected hospitals in order to make it appear as if there was COVID overcrowding.
Will the people who gave me such a hard time NOW apologize?
Yup
There are some shortages, but it is caused by policy. Most of SCal is under 2 bed per 1K people when the average for the country is 2.2 beds per 1K people. The same goes for Salt Lake, Utah. They were in the news awhile back for bed shortages. They are under 2 beds per 1K people, and take patients from surrounding states for specialty care.
Take this LIVE VACCINE, AND YOU COULD GET COVID
SIDE EFFECTS
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/90218?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2020-12-15&eun=g1635391d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily Headlines Top Cat HeC 2020-12-15&utm_term=NL_Daily_DHE_dual-gmail-definition
I have active kids, and I’ve seen this first hand.
When my oldest got hurt and I suspected a concussion, we were in the pediatric urgent care center and seen very quickly once I was able to convince them it was more than “ow, my shoulder” and schedule us to come in. Immediately seen once screened. Normally, it would have been hours.
One of the kids had knee surgery a few months ago. There was a flare up in pain, and we knew there was a risk that we’d need a second surgery. Called orthopedist to be seen. Do you want to come in this afternoon or tomorrow? Normally a several week wait for appointments. We came in, he said the issue was falling off on physical therapy ... we’re now doing that at home properly.
The orthopedist said his patient load has fallen dramatically. When all “optional” surgeries are suspended, there’s less work. While kids still get hurt, the suspension of sports meant less work. And parents were delaying getting care for at-home injuries and some congenital issues because they were afraid of exposure.
When I had an issue come up, I visited two different specialists. One had next day appointments available. The other had a longer wait - we can see you next week. Normally, nothing would be available for weeks.
Actually my wife gets travel nursing job postings. Lots of postings for Covid care ICU nurses at $4000/wk + from Detroit, NYC, Chicago, Minneapolis, California, Oregon, Washington, various cities near the Mexican border, etc. Actually I think the Detroit jobs might have been as high as $8000. There's plenty of other jobs at lower rates getting filled. Nobody wants to go to these certain areas for some reason...
for example:
New MS/Tele RN jobs paying up to $7,866/week in Sacramento, CA for 60 hours with Aya Healthcare. 48 hours available paying up to $5,913/week. December and January start dates. Expedited licensing available. Log in at https://nxt.to/kOHtILf to see all 33,000+ jobs, hospitals, pay rates and apply.
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