ccather
Marksman
Folks in Bay County have a major problem if the Coronavirus hits here in large numbers. Our two hospitals are still not completely repaired from HM. There is a major shortage of available beds for admitting patients. At one there is a FOUR DAY WAIT to get patients from the Emergency Room into hospital rooms! There are patients on beds in the ER hallways (thing about the collateral exposure if you don't have Coronavirus!). I'm sure they go by medical priority to surgery or cardiac care but then there's the "wait" to move them out of Post Op/Recovery and ICU. Customarily, ambulance patients would be routed equally between the hospitials unless one specialized in cardiology or burn unit. Generally, loading would be equal. It makes no medical sense to take patients to hospitals that are overflowing while another within a few miles has beds available. This tells me their both overflowing. I don't think any hospital has enough airborn infection isolation (negative pressure) rooms to handle a local area epidemic.
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Will the hospitals be able to help sick people in a major outbreak?
Well let's see some numbers:
According to American Hospital Association:
Total staffed beds in America (Private, public and Federal): 924,000
Occupancy rate of those beds (average) 66%
Number of vacant beds 314,000
Average number of vacant beds per state 6,300
Florida population 21,000,000
So that is 1 vacant bed for every 3,333 people. Where do the other 3,332 people go?
Obviously we suffer flu outbreaks every year. Still, if something came along which required hospitalization for even a half of one percent of our population, we would face "challenges".
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