COLUMBUS, Ohio — As the number of coronavirus cases in Ohio continues to increase, so do hospital numbers.
Tracking those numbers is Eye on Ohio: Ohio Center for Journalism. Lucia Walinchus is the executive director.
“We’re looking at staffed beds here. Honestly, this is the worst numbers we’ve ever seen,” Walinchus said.
According to the latest statistics, the state reported 1,197 available Med/Surg beds on Aug. 20. One month prior, on July 20, the number of available Med/Surg beds was 2,531. That’s a decrease of more than 1,300 Med/Surg beds.
“Every hospital that we talked to said they have contingency plans to open up their beds,” said Walinchus. “Right now we still are doing elective procedures. At one point last year, we canceled all elective procedures, so when we canceled elective procedures obviously our capacity went way up and we never really quite reached that level.”
Meanwhile, in the intensive care unit, COVID-19 critical care patients accounted for 12.7% of beds on Aug. 25, almost double what was reported two weeks prior (7.32%).
Eye on Ohio fought the state for access to the number of available hospital beds and other equipment related to COVID-19. The organization filed a lawsuit in the Court of Claims of Ohio to obtain the requested information.
In November 2020, Judge Patrick M. McGrath ruled the Ohio Department of Health must provide that data.
Click here to view the latest data from Eye on Ohio.
