Governor DeWine or Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff spend a portion of press briefings discussing the issue of hospital capacity, often warning Ohioans that if cases continue to climb, hospitals around the state will be overrun and care for other non-COVID patients may be crowded out.
Consequently, The Ohio Star dug into the data to unearth the trend in statewide hospital capacity and in each of Ohio’s eight Hospital Preparedness Regions.
Based on numbers found on the COVID Dashboard, between December 1 and December 15 cases dropped statewide by 23%, hospitalizations dipped 1% and deaths decreased 35%.
The percentage change was not calculated beyond December 15 as the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) has repeatedly advised that numbers take about two weeks to settle – except for numbers reported on the Hospital Key Indicator page, which updates daily.
According to the data found on the state website (specifically under the “Key Metrics” tab, then “Hospitalizations” in the drop-down menu) total utilization statewide per inpatient beds, ICU beds and ventilators, is as follows:
- Inpatient Beds: decreased 1%
- ICU Beds: increased 1%
- Ventilators: increased 1%
And, the number of COVID patients in hospitals, ICUs and on ventilators between December 16 – December 29 dropped by double digits across the board:
- Inpatient Beds: decreased 13%
- ICU Beds: decreased 12%
- Ventilators: decreased 16%
Statewide trends are not indicative of what is occurring in each corner of the state. The Ohio Hospital Preparedness Regions break up the state into eight parts – the map below outlines each region.
Key hospital metrics can be viewed for each region by visiting the hospital key metrics page and clicking on the drop-down menu and selecting any one of the eight regions.
The Star looked into hospital utilization by each region on December 29 and compared utilization on December 16 to utilization on December 29 and found the following information.
Region 1
- Inpatient Beds: decreased 14%
- ICU Beds: decreased 10%
- Ventilators: decreased 12%
Region 2
- Inpatient Beds: decreased 12%
- ICU Beds: decreased 21%
- Ventilators: decreased 20%
Region 3
- Inpatient Beds: decreased 7%
- ICU Beds: decreased 2%
- Ventilators: decreased 7%
Region 4
- Inpatient Beds: decreased 20%
- ICU Beds: decreased 20%
- Ventilators: decreased 25%
Region 5
- Inpatient Beds: decreased 14%
- ICU Beds: decreased 15%
- Ventilators: decreased 24%
Region 6
- Inpatient Beds: increased 1%
- ICU Beds: increased 11%
- Ventilators: increased 4%
Region 7
- Inpatient Beds: decreased 37%
- ICU Beds: decreased 44%
- Ventilators: decreased 57%
Region 8
- Inpatient Beds: decreased 19%
- ICU Beds: decreased 2%
- Ventilators: decreased 21%
According to Governor DeWine’s Press Secretary Dan Tierney, the Governor, et.al. may schedule a COVID briefing for Wednesday.
_ _ _
Jack Windsor is Managing Editor and an Investigative Reporter at The Ohio Star. Windsor is also an Investigative Reporter at WMFD-TV. Follow Jack on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
