I figured this would be as a good a place to put this as any. In case others aren't aware, every ICU in Texas is full. I know this, because we have several ICU patients in our hospital. We don't have an ICU, and we've called every ICU in Texas (and a few in close states). No one will take these patients, because they are all already full. Half or more of the ICU patients in the state are unvaccinated people sick with COVID. People who would normally survive are dying daily due to lack of available intensive care.

This is usually when I would go on a rant about getting vaccinated if you haven't already, but honestly the damage is already done. At this point, drive careful, avoid activities with high risk of injury, stay on your meds, eat healthy, and I'd avoid elective surgery like the plague right now.

If anyone thinks I'm being dramatic, please let me know where the open ICU beds are. We could use a few

Is TMC lying when they say they are 71% full?

Here in the Houston area, staff in stand alone ER's and elective procedures have been repurposed to staff areas in need.

The greater issue as I see it is the astounding number of people calling 911 that do not require an evaluation by an ER doc. 40 ambulances received 200 plus calls in 24 hour period.

Yep. Just looked and we are full capacity and holding multiple vents in ER.

JamesE4 said:

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Is TMC lying when they say they are 71% full?

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Don't know. They told us they're full. If you've got an inside contact, then I'd be happy to call them

I am in no way denying your situation, but you realize that by posting this you're creating further distrust? You made an absolute claim that is instantly disputed by data.

The very first post is showing ICU availability and has been automatically dismissed. DSHS shows 361 beds available in Texas as of yesterday. An improvement of 31 beds from 9/10.

Captain Positivity said:

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Yep. Just looked and we are full capacity and holding multiple vents in ER.

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Due to staffing?

Like I said, I'd be happy to be wrong. Unfortunately the people publishing open ICU bed data don't accept transfers. All the people that do accept ICU transfers say they are full. Once again, if you have a contact that will take my patients I will happily ask staff to delete the thread

Old Buffalo said:

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I am in no way denying your situation, but you realize that by posting this you're creating further distrust? You made an absolute claim that is instantly disputed by data.

The very first post is showing ICU availability and has been automatically dismissed. DSHS shows 361 beds available in Texas as of yesterday. An improvement of 31 beds from 9/10.

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Want to bet you or a loved one's life on that? Hope you or a loved one doesn't need an ICU bed - you can always scream but but but the data shows beds. Just like the unvaccinated scream/think "my immune system" is better. Well, history has shown the human immune system, while amazing, usually left people dead by 40 until vaccines and other modern medical advances came about.

ramblin_ag02 said:

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Like I said, I'd be happy to be wrong. Unfortunately the people publishing open ICU bed data don't accept transfers. All the people that do accept ICU transfers say they are full. Once again, if you have a contact that will take my patients I will happily ask staff to delete the thread

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Could the distinction be that some hospitals with open beds are just not taking transfers? So while they may have open beds they are saving those for patients that present at their hospital?

I don't know much about hospital admin, just trying to resolve the seeming inconsistency in your experience vs reported numbers.

McKinney Ag said:

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Curious about your comment on avoiding elective surgery like the plague. Can you expand on that?

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Ramblin may have intended different, but my take is that even the most simple elective procedures have an inherent risk that could require hospitalization and possible ICU.

unmade bed said:

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ramblin_ag02 said:

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Like I said, I'd be happy to be wrong. Unfortunately the people publishing open ICU bed data don't accept transfers. All the people that do accept ICU transfers say they are full. Once again, if you have a contact that will take my patients I will happily ask staff to delete the thread

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Could the distinction be that some hospitals with open beds are just not taking transfers? So while they may have open beds they are saving those for patients that present at their hospital?

I don't know much about hospital admin, just trying to resolve the seeming inconsistency in your experience vs reported numbers.

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Wow. Just. Wow.

jwoodmd said:

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unmade bed said:

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ramblin_ag02 said:

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Like I said, I'd be happy to be wrong. Unfortunately the people publishing open ICU bed data don't accept transfers. All the people that do accept ICU transfers say they are full. Once again, if you have a contact that will take my patients I will happily ask staff to delete the thread

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Could the distinction be that some hospitals with open beds are just not taking transfers? So while they may have open beds they are saving those for patients that present at their hospital?

I don't know much about hospital admin, just trying to resolve the seeming inconsistency in your experience vs reported numbers.

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Wow. Just. Wow.

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Hopefully that didn't come across wrong. I didn't mean that to sound like something would warrant a "wow just wow" response.

I was trying to say the same thing that I think ramblin was actually saying upon re-reading his post I quoted.

There may be some beds open in Texas but they are not accepting transfers at those hospitals. So it's possible that both are true: what ramblin is saying and what is being reported.

Oh, and to be clear if there are such things as "sides" in something like this, I am definitely on y'all's "side" when it comes to wishing more people were vaccinated. I can't imagine the frustration doctors are dealing with right now. A health matter has become a political one and people are suffering and dying because of it.

I had a family member unable to get an icu transfer 2 months ago when covid new cases were a quarter of what they currently are state wide and hospitalizations an even smaller fraction of what it currently is.

I'm quite confident that covid is making things worse. I'm also quite confident there is an issue that predates this current covid wave and once this wave goes away people will go back to not caring about the issue publicly.

jwoodmd said:

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Old Buffalo said:

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I am in no way denying your situation, but you realize that by posting this you're creating further distrust? You made an absolute claim that is instantly disputed by data.

The very first post is showing ICU availability and has been automatically dismissed. DSHS shows 361 beds available in Texas as of yesterday. An improvement of 31 beds from 9/10.

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Want to bet you or a loved one's life on that? Hope you or a loved one doesn't need an ICU bed - you can always scream but but but the data shows beds. Just like the unvaccinated scream/think "my immune system" is better. Well, history has shown the human immune system, while amazing, usually left people dead by 40 until vaccines and other modern medical advances came about.

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I love how the instant response on this board is "hope your loved ones die" or making a mockery of someone admitting they don't fully understand hospital admin.

We've got a poster on here speaking an absolute. We have data that says it's not the case. If that's true, then there are bigger issues within the hospital system that need to be addressed.

Maybe the online data is just wrong. My wife has similar experiences in southwest Missouri. Of course I made the mistake of posting her experiences on the politics board and people went and looked up hospital data so they could call me a liar. The data shown online and what she was seeing with her own eyes weren't the same.

ramblin_ag02 said:

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Like I said, I'd be happy to be wrong. Unfortunately the people publishing open ICU bed data don't accept transfers. All the people that do accept ICU transfers say they are full. Once again, if you have a contact that will take my patients I will happily ask staff to delete the thread

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Of course they don't accept transfers. They have a nice graph now that is just blue and green colors. Accepting transfers would make the graph yellow or red, and then we would have a problem.

Early on in this thing we had overflow hospitals set up in convention centers, arenas, naval ships, etc. All of that was abandoned? If we are really lacking beds then someone dropped the ball big time. We didn't run out of beds in worst of times when we didn't have effective treatments or vaccines.

IF we are really out of ICU beds now then that's sad and it's a complete and total failure. And it's not from the 20% that are unvaccinated. We had 100% unvaccinated 18 months ago.

Laying off healthcare workers, lying to people about the effectiveness of masks and vaccines, not focusing on treatments that might help treat the symptoms is a disgrace.

I hope the OP isn't true because if we are really out of beds at this stage then that's a complete and total breakdown in the system.

Well maybe there would be more staffed beds if they didn't fire the unvaxxed nurses. I personally know a handful of great er and icu nurses that were let go.

AgRebel08 said:

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Well maybe there would be more staffed beds if they didn't fire the unvaxxed nurses. I personally know a handful of great er and icu nurses that were let go.

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Firing the frontline heroes who worked through all of last year with no vax was a bad idea, shocking.

https://txdshs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/0d8bdf9be927459d9cb11b9eaef6101f
Under the Regional hospital tab every TSA shows there are available beds. If the hospitals are lying to the state health authorities maybe they should be reported. If hospitals have space and are refusing transfers drop them off anyway

FriscoKid said:

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IF we are really out of ICU beds now then that's sad and it's a complete and total failure. And it's not from the 20% that are unvaccinated. We had 100% unvaccinated 18 months ago.

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Where in the world are you getting only 20% unvaccinated? The only states that are even 66% vaccinated are in the northeast (CT, VT, MA) and their hospital situations are much better than ours.

Once again, the people making the data aren't the ones accepting transfers. I know people working at other hospitals in Ft Worth and Dallas and they're all holding ICU patients in the ER until a bed opens up. I don't personally know anyone in facilities outside the Metroplex, so I can't ask them.

I doubt they are hospitals with open ICU beds refusing transfers. People are dying. ICUs are also expensive to run, and full ICUs are better money-wisr. I can't think of a reason to leave a needed ICU spot empty. As far as why data doesn't match my reality, I have some guesses but that isn't the point.

Saving their last few beds for internal patients in the system. STEMI patients, scheduled post ops, trauma patients, etc. Fair number of reasons to not run the ICU 100% full by accepting all transfers.

TxAg05 said:

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Saving their last few beds for internal patients in the system. STEMI patients, scheduled post ops, trauma patients, etc. Fair number of reasons to not run the ICU 100% full by accepting all transfers.

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Denying beds to dying people to save them for people who might need ICU care soon isn't how medicine works

It happens every day.

Houston Methodist and another houston hospital not sure the name.

And yes its infuriating given the lack of "beds" and 2 of those nurses were assigned to covid icu all last year....really unbelievable

TxAg05 said:

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It happens every day.

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You say this like it's a fact. Do you know where this is happening so I can report them? Because prior to COVID no hospital worked that way, and the medical board would probably like to know if it's happening now.

ramblin_ag02 said:

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TxAg05 said:

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It happens every day.

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You say this like it's a fact. Do you know where this is happening so I can report them? Because prior to COVID no hospital worked that way, and the medical board would probably like to know if it's happening now.

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If you have been paying attention to the various medical professionals that have been so vocal the last 18 months it wouldn't surprise you one bit.

We are 2-3 years from having to list your political party for a doctor to agree to treat you.

It's not that shocking.

Old Buffalo said:

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I am in no way denying your situation, but you realize that by posting this you're creating further distrust? You made an absolute claim that is instantly disputed by data.

The very first post is showing ICU availability and has been automatically dismissed. DSHS shows 361 beds available in Texas as of yesterday. An improvement of 31 beds from 9/10.

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Out of curiosity, what is the distribution of those ICU beds.

I can readily imagine having 361 ICU beds available in small hospitals around the state that are not all that well prepared to accept patients.

Many small hospitals transfer their patients with just about anything halfway serious to regional medical centers as fast as possible. Stroke? Call Life Fight. Heart attack? Call Life Flight. Broken leg? Call Life Flight. Rattle snake bite? Call Life Flight. They might have an ICU bed or two, but you wouldn't want to be transferred to them for extended treatment for anything life threatening.