etj77845 said:
Before we get carried away with capacity, understand what a "Staffed Hospital Bed" really means.
Quote:
Staffed Beds
Numbers of staffed beds are taken from a hospital's most recent Medicare cost report (W/S S-3, Part I, col.1). Cost report instructions define staffed beds as, "the number of beds available for use by patients at the end of the cost reporting period. A bed means an adult bed, pediatric bed, birthing room, or newborn bed maintained in a patient care area for lodging patients in acute, long term, or domiciliary areas of the hospital. Beds in labor room, birthing room, postanesthesia, postoperative recovery rooms, outpatient areas, emergency rooms, ancillary departments, nurses' and other staff residences, and other such areas which are regularly maintained and utilized for only a portion of the stay of patients (primarily for special procedures or not for inpatient lodging) are not termed a bed for these purposes." The total number of general med/surg beds plus special care beds are reported:
- General Medical/Surgical Beds are the beds used for routine care.
- Special Care Beds include Intensive Care Units, Coronary Care Units, etc.
Edit to add.
The COVID Pt count for the TSA 'N' is significant in that we have a somewhat accurate count of the true load placed on facilities in the area. This includes those counties that would transport to B/CS hospital centers. Since 5.23 this number has gone from around 10 to 44.
There is no denying - that if we are doubling our hospital population every two weeks - it is reasonable to say that once you add another 40-50% of people - those numbers will increase. Especially adding to the population of the people who are currently becoming infected.
Update ref today...
There were nine discharged along with 13 admitted... does anyone really think that 9 people all of a sudden just got better on the same day 13 got sick.
It is more likely that they saw a huge influx and the staff made a choice to have some young's discharged to make room.
There is simply no denying that if people keep heeding the advice of forum and Facebook posts - our nursing staff and Hospitals will be thrown under the bus and told to suck it up so no one has to admit that they have to take precautions.
This is no argument for crazy's eyed shut downs because we all know that even if things did get out of hand the deniers would win the day and they would turn out with God knows what strapped to their bodies.
But all we are asking is as we open you care about the economy because if you do not care about others you will scare people back into their house and then - boom goes the economy until there is a vaccine next year!
The truth is the numbers are already forcing our local hospitals to hit capacity and so more kids will get sick along with older people.
It is time to deny the deniers - y'all were wrong to say "masks are government tyranny"
Do you shack your fists at yellow caution lights and say "i do not need big brother warning me about a cross street" - or so you tap the break look both ways and then glide through - thinking as a society how nice is it that we care for one another so much that we put up caution lights to say "hey be careful - you might get hurt if you do not look both way".
But there is enough evidence since all this started that should convince reasonable person it can slow the spread of the virus. A reasonable person who just the smallest bit concern for anyone but themselves would say "Yeah, I can handle this minor inconvenience for the sake of others" (and I would say if you consider yourself a Christian this would be a no-brainer of an attitude to take).