Boston hospitals ‘challenged’ by coronavirus as city data shows beds almost full

“Challenged” Boston hospitals remain on the brink of running out of beds amid the coronavirus surge, according to city data.

The numbers show that 99% of all adult hospital beds in Boston are full, a number the city’s hovered at for six days. The hospitals’ intensive care units are faring better, with 12% of beds free — though both metrics, which are seven-day moving averages, remain worse than the marks Boston officials laid out in October for “thresholds for concern.”

The threshold for concern for all adult hospital beds was 95%, a mark the city crossed Jan. 6. The hospitals blew past the 20% line set out for ICU capacity in mid December.

This data comes from Boston’s semiweekly report, which was released in its latest iteration Wednesday night. Hospitals say they’re still managing — but have high numbers of patients.

Terry Hudson-Jinks, Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Patient Experience Officer at Tufts Medical Center, said her hospital is “currently running at 135-145% of our typical occupancy.”

“For the most part, we have been able to keep several beds open to ensure we can safety care for patients who need our care,” she said. “This situation has challenged us greatly. Our teams are outstanding and are working extra hours to support this consistent high capacity over the past number of weeks. We are hopeful we will see a decreased occupancy rate over the next month.”

A Boston Medical Center spokesman said the hospital “continues to have capacity available for COVID and non-COVID patients.”

“As of Thursday, we have 67 COVID-positive inpatients at BMC, including 14 in our ICU,” BMC spokesman David Kibbe said Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said the bed situation remains “tight,” but there still is space in the ICU and out of it.

Boston’s data does show some positive changes. The seven-day average positive test rate continues to creep downward, now at 7.5% after a high of 9.1% in early January. Similarly, the number of positive tests per day also has begun to drop, though both of those metrics also remain drastically worse than the city’s thresholds for concern.

Dorchester, Hyde Park and Roxbury all have positive test rates over 10%, and East Boston, Roslindale and Mattapan all have rates over 8%, which is the city’s threshold for concern for an individual neighborhood.

In total, Boston has seen 49,840 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 42,467 people have recovered and 1,113 died. That’s after 461 more cases reported Thursday and six more deaths. Boston says around 7,343 people are reported to currently have the virus in the city.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/39X1BAu