Cleveland Needs More Hospital Beds For Coronavirus: Study

CLEVELAND — As the new coronavirus, COVID-19, spreads statewide, Ohio officials are warning of an impending surge in cases. The spike in infected persons could lead to shortages of medical equipment and hospital beds, officials warned.

There is no longer a chance that Ohio will not see a surge in COVID-19 cases, said Dr. Amy Acton, the health department's director. The stress on hospitals could also lead to ripple effects, with people who don't have the virus having to wait for medical access, Acton said.

Mike Abrams, the president and CEO of the Ohio Hospital Association, said Tuesday that hospital systems across the state are preparing for a surge in cases.

"Hospitals in our state are at about 75 percent capacity," Abrams said. That means, he said, hospital systems could accommodate a 25 percent surge in COVID-19 but that anything beyond that would require extraordinary measures.

Those "extraordinary" measures could include accepting noninfectious patients into nursing homes or hotels for care, opening up hospital beds for surge accommodation, Abrams said. There have also been talks of reopening hospital buildings that have recently closed. The state could also send patients to critical-access hospitals, where restrictions on beds have been relaxed by the federal government.

From ProPublica:

As of 2018, Cleveland, OH had 7,230 total hospital beds, of which about 64% were occupied, potentially leaving only 2,630 beds open for additional patients. The bed count includes 890 beds in intensive care units, according to data from the American Hospital Association and the American Hospital Directory. Intensive care units are best equipped to handle the most acute coronavirus cases.

The Cleveland region has a population of about 2 million residents; 17% are over the age of 65. The experience in other countries has shown that elderly patients have significantly higher hospitalization and fatality rates from the coronavirus.

In the moderate scenario, in which 40% of the adult population contracts the disease over 12 months, Cleveland, OH would be among the regions that would need to expand capacity.

It is estimated that about 8% of the adult population would require hospital care. In a moderate scenario where 40% of the population is infected over a 12-month period, hospitals in Cleveland, OH would receive an estimated 135,000 coronavirus patients. The influx of patients would require 4,510 beds over 12 months, which is 171 percent of times the number of available beds in that time period. The Harvard researchers' scenarios assume that each coronavirus patient will require 12 days of hospital care on average, based on data from China.

In the Cleveland, OH region, intensive care units would be especially overwhelmed and require additional capacity. Without coronavirus patients, there are only 310 available beds on average in intensive care units, which is 3.2 times times less than what is needed to care for all severe cases.

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