Normal (pre-Covid) Hospital occupancy rates and ICU rates

I think the whole hospital shortage deal has been the biggest COVID fallacy that the largest amount of people have eaten up hook, line, and sinker.

Well, back in the day, hospital administrators would brag about their census rate while playing a round of golf.

Elective surgery is how hospitals make money. No elective surgeries no big money making surgeries.

Every hospital system is going to be a little different. But to some extent, yes, hospital systems neither want to be too full nor too empty.

Even in pre covid times it wasn't unusual for a hospital to go on diversion for capacity concerns, only taking the sickest or those who needed tertiary level of care.

However, during these covid surges multiple hospitals in a region are concurrently ggoing on diversion. makes it a little more difficult for these smaller hospitals to transfer out these sickest to receive the higher level of care they might need.

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I think the whole hospital shortage deal has been the biggest COVID fallacy that the largest amount of people have eaten up hook, line, and sinker.

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Why? Are you a medical professional or a hospital administrator? What’s the basis of your skepticism?

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Her husband chimed in about hospitals always keeping their occupancy high for billing purposes (to keep the hospital well funded)

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If the patient’s LOS is too long, the hospital gets knocked by insurance or Medicare and loses money. Also, if a Medicare patient re-admits within 30 days, the hospital doesn’t get paid. There’s other factors too, so her husband is full of crap.

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I think the whole hospital shortage deal has been the biggest COVID fallacy that the largest amount of people have eaten up hook, line, and sinker.

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Uh. No. Not at all

I know for a fact that that hospitals where I know people- (nola, Baton Rouge and slidell, some Covington) have been at alarming levels.

Not sure where they are now though

ICU’s fill up on busy weekends.

Most aren’t very big.

This is what people in the medical field just cannot understand and it is understandable.

Say a hospital has 40 ICU beds with an average of 30 beds full at any given time due to heart attacks, car accidents etc. Now take into account those same 40 beds and say 35 of their ICU beds are being used for COVID patients. So they now have 5 beds for the typical 30 non covid patients, where do those 25 patients go that they cannot fit? The next hospital that is dealing with the exact same issue?

This is the issue that these hospitals are dealing with and having to prioritize care to the sickest patients and the one who are borderline to told good luck.

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I think the whole hospital shortage deal has been the biggest COVID fallacy that the largest amount of people have eaten up hook, line, and sinker.

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It really depends on the hospital but in general, what you are saying is bullshite.

I watched it a little bit from the inside because my wife is at a major regional medical center. If you look at it as a raw census issue it wouldn't look like a big deal but if you look at all the units and floors that were closed to open COVID units and floors it becomes more clear where the crush came from. Then look at the number of ICU capable nurses needed before to the ones needed during the waves that is another indication. You can't just throw any old med-surg nurse into an ICU setting.

Again if you just look at census data you likely won't see huge surges because they weren't admitting a lot of people that didn't have COVID.

Most hospitals didn't crumble but that doesn't mean that there weren't stretches of time where they were running around with their hair on fire a few inches away from serious issues. The fact they did the job they did allows people to speculate it was really a non-issue, which is a credit to the vast majority of hospitals.