COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hospital bed capacity throughout Ohio fell to a new lowest low, again.
This is the third week in a row that hospital capacity has dwindled.
Eye on Ohio reported 490 available Med/Surg (regular) beds across the state on Oct. 8, which is 243 less than what was reported seven days prior.
Capacity within intensive care units also decreased.
According to Lucia Walinchus, executive director for Eye on Ohio, the number of available ICU beds for the week of Oct. 11 slid between 343 and 142.
The previous low, set on Oct. 8, was 167. And before that, the lowest low was 184, set on Oct. 1.
Walinchus said this trend was not expected.
“Last year, any time there was a decrease in cases, decrease in hospitalizations, a lot of times hospital capacity would go back up, but unfortunately, we’re just at the level now where it’s so low that hospitals are employing alternative strategies to try to delay some things and try to combine some things, send some patients to other places, so for the third week in a row, we’ve seen them continue to struggle,” she said.
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.
Eye on Ohio: Ohio Center for Journalism has tracked the number of available Med/Surg [regular] hospital beds as well as the number of beds within intensive care units throughout Ohio since the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
