According to this chart on the ICU bed capacity in the TMC in Houston, there is still plenty of capacity. But yet we hear all the sky is falling around ICU beds.

• Other than the media not telling the truth, is there anything going on here?
• Does anyone know the difference in the different phases?

https://www.tmc.edu/coronavirus-updates/overview-of-tmc-icu-bed-capacity-and-occupancy/

I've heard some reports of it being a staffing issue more than a physical bed issue

Agthatbuilds said:

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I've heard some reports of it being a staffing issue more than a physical bed issue

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this

Agthatbuilds said:

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I've heard some reports of it being a staffing issue more than a physical bed issue

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It is 100% a staffing issue.

Interesting. I know there may be issues with ICU nurse availability. If additional capacity is added it won't be at the same level of care provided normally in the ICU. I honestly don't know about the different phases, and would interested in hearing some of our doctors/nurses chime in.

I don't know enough to declare the media's take is accurate or not. I do know of specific instances where friends had to wait for hours in the ER before admittance.

It's staffing

Because of the strains of the first COVID outbreak and Especially in the ICU, a ton of nurses left their hospital jobs for travel agencies (why not make 4x the money to do the exact same job)

And many travel agency nurses are taking this summer off after the winter COVID season

Combine it with the new hospital mandates on getting the jab and hospitals are looking at as much as 30-40% less staff this coming fall

Keep in mind Hospitals were/are designed to be FULL. Wards or entire floors of staffed empty beds are incredibly wasteful.

I've long suspected that while that slide shows total availability and their capabilities, they'll likely claim to officially be "full" when the Phase 1 beds are consumed.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Keep in mind Hospitals were/are designed to be FULL. Wards or entire floors of staffed empty beds are incredibly wasteful.

I've long suspected that while that slide shows total availability and their capabilities, they'll likely claim to officially be "full" when the Phase 1 beds are consumed.

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Exactly

ICUs are very expensive

If they aren't at least 80-90% full all the time they are losing money

Agthatbuilds said:

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I've heard some reports of it being a staffing issue more than a physical bed issue

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Maybe hospitals shouldn't be firing nurses who refuse the China flu shot.

DallasAg 94 said:

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Just a preview of what Government Single-Payer Health Care will look like.

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Only worse

The dirty little secret of UHS systems is they absolutely screw employees in salary to keep costs down

Eventually, native born citizens mostly refuse to work in them and fewer natives bother going to medical or nursing school at all because the pay is so low relative to their skill and the hours demanded

How do they solve this? By stealing medical talent from the 3rd world who need it the most! They know doctors and nurses from Honduras and Guatemala will take the low wages and long hours in exchange for the promise of citizenship

THAT is the dirty secret of UHS they don't want to tell you

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Keep in mind Hospitals were/are designed to be FULL

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Always remember this. Empty hospital beds do not pay the bills. Every hospital I have ever been in has lots of patients.

Also, waiting for a room is a very common occurrence. Both my parents were in the hospital multiple times over their last few years. They always had to wait a few hours or even a couple of days to be moved to a room.

According to the CDC, as of 11 days ago, 6% of hospitals in Texas (or 29 hospitals) are experiencing staff shortages.

I have no idea how that compares to historical staffing nor which hospitals we are talking about. I would assume that most of those 29 are your larger hospitals where all the action is but don't know if that is true.

Agthatbuilds said:

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I've heard some reports of it being a staffing issue more than a physical bed issue

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Its 100% this

YouBet said:

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According to the CDC, as of 11 days ago, 6% of hospitals in Texas (or 29 hospitals) are experiencing staff shortages.

I have no idea how that compares to historical staffing nor which hospitals we are talking about. I would assume that most of those 29 are your larger hospitals where all the action is but don't know if that is true.

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Everybody is experiencing staffing shortages

CDC probably has an artificially high number on what constitutes a "shortage"

But put it this way, if our ICU was short just 3 nurses they'd be absolutely screwed (ICU nurses almost never cover more 1-2 pts at a time)

TMC covers Methodist. How many were fired because of vaccination requirements. They didn't want the nurses to make people in ICU sick.

DrZ said:

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TMC covers Methodist. How many were fired because of vaccination requirements. They didn't want the nurses to make people in ICU sick.

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Roughly 150, IIRC.

150 total Methodist employees across 8 hospitals and I believe 20 clinics. I have not seen any release of numbers for just nurses or by hospital.

Agthatbuilds said:

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I've heard some reports of it being a staffing issue more than a physical bed issue

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Yep

If you listen closely the news just uses words like 'overwhelmed' and they never clearly say over capacity.

So yeah they're overwhelmed but it's because they don't have the staff.

For example last week Memorial Hermann closed 3 critical care centers and the news just reports that they were closed due to COVID but they didn't mention they were closed so they could move staff from those critical care centers to real ERs where they're understaffed.

StandUpforAmerica said:

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According to this chart on the ICU bed capacity in the TMC in Houston, there is still plenty of capacity. But yet we hear all the sky is falling around ICU beds.

• Other than the media not telling the truth, is there anything going on here?
• Does anyone know the difference in the different phases?

https://www.tmc.edu/coronavirus-updates/overview-of-tmc-icu-bed-capacity-and-occupancy/

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TMC's dedicated ICU capacity is 100% full. Like most large hospitals, there is some ability to flex in the event of a major event. A pandemic would be one of them. They can "flex" to more beds (Phases 2 and 3) as needed, but they are not dedicated with staffing on an ongoing basis. TMC summarizes as follows:



No, TMC has not exhausted all of its ICU bed capacity. It has, however, exhausted what it routinely operates outside of the pandemic.

I get it, the ICU capacity issue is poorly reported. It's overblown, and most large hospitals are generally capable of flexing beyond 100%. Small/rural hospitals, not so much. That's one unfortunate part of the picture.

The other is the fact that we can argue hospitals routinely operate at 100% capacity, big or small. If that's true, and COVID cases are continuously taking up X% of the beds, then other ICU needs aren't getting met during that time.

The reporting is awful for people trying to understand the impacts. The real life hospital situation can be awful too.

For whatever it's worth.

State of Texas Dashboard as of yesterday.

7,937 available hospital beds (Staffed)
362 available ICU beds

jimscott85 said:

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The reporting is awful for people trying to understand the impacts.

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Back in the day, I worked for a major Houston hospital that was frequently in the news. Reporters always got a particular issue wrong. We decided to host a media lunch and educate them so future reporting would be more accurate.

We had more than 20 reporters and TV folks show up. They listened politely as our CEO and others explained the details. Toward the end, one of the Channel 2 midday anchors stood up and said (I'm paraphrasing here): "This is all very interesting but it's way too complicated for us to explain so we're just gonna keep reporting like we've been doing."

And that was that.

Bottom line: The media has no interest in accuracy or fairness.

Many hospitals have turned to staffing agencies and are about to turn to international staffing agencies. The level of care is not as good when this happens.