Ohio hospital capacity remains flat, but full

Ohio hospital capacity remains flat, but full

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hospitals throughout the state remain filled with COVID-19 patients.


What You Need To Know

  • Each week, Eye on Ohio: Ohio Center for Journalism updates its ongoing data tally of the state’s hospital bed numbers
  • Individual hospitals report their numbers to the state and the state then sends that information to Eye on Ohio
  • The state reported increases in the number of patients filling both Med/Surg beds as well as ICU beds.

Tracking those numbers is Eye on Ohio: Ohio Center for Journalism. Lucia Walinchus is the executive director.

“We’re seeing more and more patients in with COVID. At the end of July, ICUs were only at about 1% COVID patients. At the end of August, that was about 15%, and obviously hospital capacity has suffered as a result,” Walinchus said.

According to the state data, Ohio reported 1,303 available Med/Surg beds on Aug. 27. That’s 106 more than the week before but much less than what was available in July. State data reported 2,451 available Med/Surg beds on July 27.

“It’s very low right now. We’re looking at numbers that we saw before in the January time frame,” Walinchus said.

State hospital data also showed Dayton experienced its lowest capacity of the pandemic with 29 Med/Surg beds available.

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.

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