COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hospital capacity in Ohio continues to shrink.
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.
Eye on Ohio reporting showed 994 available Med/Surg beds across the state on Sept. 10. That’s about half of what was reported seven days prior.
Meanwhile, capacity within the state’s ICUs also shrunk, hitting a record low of 224 on Sept. 10, 112 less than reported Sept. 3.
“ICU beds are now at their lowest low that we’ve ever seen them. And 20% of all the diagnoses there is COVID patients, so that’s the highest we’ve ever seen in terms of the percentage of COVID patients and this is the lowest number of ICU beds that we’ve ever seen,” executive director Lucia Walincus said.
Eye On Ohio recently corrected the way it calculates statistics. These numbers reflect that correction.
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 Nov. 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.
