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Why Are Hospitals Supposedly Struggling?
I’m genuinely curious about something that the media are reporting but (of course) only superficially. As usual, there are questions no one seems to be asking.
We all remember how, in the spring of 2020, we went into lockdown to “flatten the curve,” essentially a desperate attempt to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. Whether the lockdown had any effect or not, the feared crisis didn’t happen; hospitals were busy, even very busy, but never beyond their ability to cope.
The US overall case count peaked early this year — still no stories of overwhelmed hospitals — and then fell sharply until July. Since then it has been climbing again, presumably driven by the spread of the Delta variant. But it has not climbed back up to the highs from earlier in the year, and there are signs that it might be starting to fall (or at least plateau) again. Meanwhile, we are told that although Delta is more transmissible, it generally cause less serious disease.
Why, then, is the news full of stories about hospitals supposedly struggling under a massive case load? This is apparently genuinely happening; I have heard anecdotes (not through the media) of people who couldn’t be admitted to hospitals because no beds were available. Why should hospitals be full to capacity now when they weren’t in January, when the case load was higher and the virus more dangerous? And what happened to all of the overflow capacity we had, but didn’t need, in 2020?
Published in General
Exactly- and anyone claiming they are admitting people with COVID who aren’t sick in order to fill their beds is an ignoramus. Medicare pays below cost for most of the admissions.
Duplicate post
Nobody has claimed this anywhere. The argument is they were there FOR OTHER REASONS. Like “I broke my arm” or “I have an unexplained rash”. Or for elective surgery.
Exactly WRONG- the USA leads the world in ICU capacity. Many EU nations have more hospital beds but they are so low tech as to virtually worthless- essentially hotel rooms. They exist only to employ the nurses b/c they vote.
ICU Beds/100,00 pre COVID( you can’t make ICU beds fast)
USA-34.7
Germany-29.2
Italy-12.5
France-11.6
UK-6.6. The UK didn’t lockdown for nothing…..
we aren’t healthier but we do not use the ICU as a gatekeeper to the system to hold costs, like Canada & the UK do- as in the old excuse “we can’t do your heart surgery b/c the ICU is full”- when in reality they purposely underfunded the ICU to hold down elective procedures.
And they are filling up hospitals how? Are you claiming more people are breaking their arms in the COVID era than before? Not to mention you do not stay long for a broken arm in a US hospital- but you do stay long for a severe COVID infection. Furthermore, if you know anything about healthcare you would know that ELECTIVE SURGERY IS CANCELED IF YOU HAVE COVID and you are not admitted unless you are sick with Covid.
I don’t think the data I was looking at included ICU numbers separately.
In a pandemic in which the deaths are due to ARDS the ICU is what counts….
I was relating what I had read on a site that would have been somewhat reliable like maybe a university site, but hey, it was the internet. Is this per 1,000 people?
In addition, it’s a slam on the health care hierarchy that their employees don’t follow their health advice. These are people who work for doctors, taking their direction on a day to day basis, depending on their position. Not to mention that we don’t see statistics on what percentage of doctors are unvaccinated.
But another factor needs to be considered. Probably a higher percentage of these workers relative to the general population have probably caught Covid and have immunity that way. I don’t consider a person irrational to base their decision on their having already caught Covid.
While, short term, the chances of a bad reaction to the vaccine is small, beyond the few days of flu-like symptoms, the risk is not non-existent. So if you’ve already gotten a more robust immunity than the vaccine gives you, why take the additional risk?
One hospital chain has acknowledged that, saying that if you’ve had Covid in the last year, you don’t need to be vaccinated.
I believe hospital administrators when they say they’re struggling. But we’ve watched this dance before, with the usual moral hectoring that follows, from these same administrators.
And I don’t think we’re getting enough information.
I want more numbers. What is the average stay of a Covid patient? What special precautions are taken that requires more labor? And regarding that labor, how much education does it require? It doesn’t take an RN to empty a bedpan. Are there tasks that can be done by people you hire off the street? An RN has 2-4 years of training. Not so much with nursing assistants.
Getting back to numbers, in general I want breakdowns by age, specific comorbidity – especially obesity – and length of stay. What special precautions are taken with people who are infectious?
And what about monoclonal-antibody treatment? What hospitals are using it and what hospitals are not? What is your local hospital doing? Apparently, it reduces stays by half. My local hospital is complaining about workload. No indication on treatments.
We aren’t getting enough information. Give us more.
I initially got the idea from this site and there is a link to more charts and one has a number for “acute” care beds but is that an ICU? If your US number is per 10,000 then the numbers for the US are not that far off, but it’s showing more for other countries. Your comments about care level and such do make sense to me. It occurs to me that people in the US probably use hospitals less because they choose not to (free market) whereas the more social health systems where it doesn’t appear to cost the individual they would attempt to use it more.
We use less hospital beds b/c the system incentivizes getting you out of the hospital ASAP-while in many countries the government provides a large number of low tech hospital beds and keeps you in house longer (mainly for PR- “we have lots of healthcare-altho it is crappy& as a public works program- ie employ people). But many of these low tech hospital beds are damn near worthless- it is why Italy was overrun quickly by COVID- many “beds” but very few ICU beds. Much of the EU keeps ICU capacity low b/c it is expensive and it acts as a restriction on performing expensive surgery- “your surgery is postponed b/c the ICU is full (by design-again keep costs down). Acute care beds are NOT ICU beds and the difference is critical if you have ARDS.
Vast difference in the cost of caring for a sick COVID patient and the general hospital population. One you want negative pressure rooms- even if not in the ICU. Many rooms are non pressurized or positive pressure and most be modified. Second, The ICU is significantly more expensive than the floor- ventilators, invasive monitors, 1:1 or 1:2 nursing care etc. Third, regular floor nursing won’t cut the mustard- ICU RNs are much more highly trained. The list is very long….
Where I am in the Houston, Texas area the ICUs are full and the administrators are scrambling to find space for new patients in other hospitals. In some cases new ICU beds have been opened in converted rooms. They are having a lot of trouble staffing these beds, too.
This area is being hit hard by the latest wave most likely due to the relatively high unvaccinated rate, especially in the black community.
There is no call to lock down this time around. I doubt if people would abide by a lockdown. Going by the traffic and bus ridership the economy is essentially normal.
Vaccines are readily available for everyone, but some people would rather die than get jabbed.
I’m fine with people not getting vaccinated. But the stories about them wishing they had been while on their deathbed piss me off. Take your chances. Fine. But don’t complain. I just wonder how the MSM goes about finding these instances to report on a daily basis.
Same with masking. I don’t wear one and if I die of Covid I’m not going to wish I had.
Those stories are almost entirely fake.