POST 88. December 11, 2020. CORONAVIRUS. “As COVID-19 cases surge, the federal government is releasing data about hospital capacity at facilities around the country….”The new data paints the picture of how a specific hospital is experiencing the pandemic,”…

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…The information provides nationwide data on hospital capacity and bed use at a hospital-by-hospital level…

The dataset — which includes capacity reporting from hospitals in 2,200 counties in the U.S. — spotlights areas where hospitals are getting dangerously full. In 126 counties, the average hospital is at least 90% occupied, according to an analysis of the data by the COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project. The states with the most counties above this threshold are Kentucky, Georgia, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas.

Hospitals both large and small are feeling the strain, the data show. In Texas, for example, both the Memorial Hermann Hospital System, with its 250 beds, and the Hereford Regional Medical Center, with its 31 beds, were above 90% capacity in the past week.

Previously, with only state-level data available, it was hard for health leaders and researchers to identify regional hot spots. The new data show where individual hospitals are being overwhelmed, even when a state overall isn’t at crisis levels…

The dataset, uploaded to Healthdata.gov, provides a weekly snapshot of how COVID-19 is impacting individual hospitals across the country, including the number of COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital and the number of severely ill patients requiring intensive care. The information dates back to July 31. Going forward, the data is expected to be updated each week.” (A)

“It focuses on one important metric — how many beds are filled with COVID-19 patients — and shows this for each hospital and on average for each county.

The ratio of COVID-19 hospitalizations to total beds gives a picture of how much strain a hospital is under. Though there’s not a clear threshold, it’s concerning when that rate rises above 10%, hospital capacity experts told NPR.

Anything above 20% represents “extreme stress” for the hospital, according to a framework developed by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

If that figure gets to near 50% or above, the stress on staff is immense. “It means the hospital is overloaded. It means other services in that hospital are being delayed. The hospital becomes a nightmare,”….

The University of Minnesota’s analysis shows that there are 55 counties where the hospital average has reached that rate.” (B)

To find data on a hospital highlight and click on this link, then on the map roll the cursor over the state of interest until you locate the county – hospital specific data will appear below the map.

(A)COVID-19 Data Release Shows Where Hospitals Around The Country Are Filling Up, BY SEAN MCMINN and PIEN HUANG https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/12/07/944021201/new-covid-19-data-release-shows-where-hospitals-around-the-country-are-filling-u

(B) New Data Reveal Which Hospitals Are Dangerously Full. Is Yours?, by SEAN MCMINN and AUDREY CARLSEN, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/12/09/944379919/new-data-reveal-which-hospitals-are-dangerously-full-is-yours