ICUs are completely full in at least 50 hospitals in Texas because of COVID-19

Hidalgo County Health Authority Ivan Melendez says entering COVID-19 units now feels like a nonlinear version of the five stages of pain: denial, anger, negotiation, depression, and acceptance.

“You’re crying,” he told the Tribune. “There is a lady I take care of, whom I have known since I was a child. … We grew up together and I know he will die. … It’s the same thing: “We got together for Christmas.” Now we see its branch. ”

Across Texas, the hospital’s intensive care units are being beaten as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in post-holiday growth. Dozens of facilities have reported that their ICUs have been in over 100% capacity for weeks, leaving staff overworked and stretched thin.

More than 50 hospitals in Texas currently report that their ICUs are 100% full or larger, and a dozen of them are full for more than half of the 24 weeks since hospitals began reporting this information in July. , according to an analysis by the Texas Tribune of data published by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

For example, the Rio Grande Regional Hospital in McAllen and the HCA Houston Healthcare Medical Center in Houston were over 100% for 23 and 22 weeks, respectively.

Although national hospitalizations due to COVID-19 appear to be stabilizing, there are still concerns, said Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. In Texas, there are about 600 ICU beds available – a fraction of the several thousand that opened in the spring when the pandemic began.

Van Deusen said the pandemic appears to hit different regions in waves. Currently, the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio areas are seeing significant increases in COVID-19 cases, according to DSHS data.

Health officials in Laredo have sent out emergency alerts asking residents to stay home as local ICUs have reached capacity in the past month. Currently, patients with COVID-19 occupy almost half of the hospital capacity in this region, according to DSHS data – the highest percentage in the state.

Many cities have had to redirect patients to other hospitals as their local ICUs overflow, in addition to expanding and converting available beds to treat intensive care patients.

Melendez said the count of beds available for the ICU does not provide a complete picture of Texas hospitals because they are constantly adapting to accommodate more patients. If an intensive care unit is technically full, he said, many hospitals can still convert some beds or units available outside that ward to provide intensive care to patients.

Hendrick’s Chief of Health Staff, Stephen Lowry, said his Abilene hospital used both diversion and bed conversion. Currently, the facility is operating at a capacity of 160%, which is declining from a peak of 180%, he said.

Hendrick Health is the regional referral center for 24 surrounding counties, but Lowry said the hospital failed to meet the area’s needs because they no longer have room for new patients; they created all the new space they could in the spring before the pandemic hit.

“It’s very frustrating,” Lowry said. “Hear stories from the community or family members who may have relatives in one of these suburbs and have trouble bringing their loved ones to a higher level of care, because not only Hendrick, but many other facilities in the whole country is full and cannot accept transfers. ”

Texas Health Fort Worth, one of the busiest hospitals in Tarrant County, reported reaching 100% ICU capacity on Jan. 8, according to HHS data. The president of the hospital, Joseph DeLeon, said that, like many other medical centers, the Texas Health Resources network tried to ease the pressure by canceling non-critical outpatient procedures.

But so far, the measures that helped grow COVID-19 during the summer have not worked as well in the winter, DeLeon said.

“We thought, ‘Well, well, now we have an experience from July, we know what it will look like.’ But the second wave was different. This time there were many more patients with critical illnesses, “DeLeon told Tribune. “This time, I had a lot more stress on the staff, a lot more stress on the doctors … it was just a test of endurance.”

Cynthia Simmons is Arlington’s public health authority and emergency physician at the Medical City of Arlington, which has a capacity of almost 100% for weeks. She said Texans should understand that if they get into car accidents, have heart attacks or face other non-COVID-19 emergencies, a full intensive care unit at the nearest hospital could mean there may not be enough resources available.

“We’re at a time when we have so much COVID in our community, it’s so easy to spread, that the same things we talked about in public health measures from day one are really important now,” Simmons said. “I am aware that people are tired of this. But it is very important, right now, right now, to continue these measures to help save the capacity of our hospitals. ”

Simmons added that people should not delay care if they need it, as emergency rooms are adept at managing both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients, even when they are full. .

Simmons and other Texas health workers have expressed hope for the future after the Texas vaccination process began on December 14. Tens of thousands have already received a second dose, although millions of people who are now eligible are still waiting for Texas to receive enough doses to vaccinate health care workers, long-term care residents, people over the age of 65, and of those with certain health conditions comprising groups 1A and 1B.

But the ICU bed crisis is far from over. Although hospitalizations are not currently growing at higher rates since December, a more contagious variant of COVID-19, identified in Harris County on January 7, could cause hospitalizations to increase more sharply as it spreads. Although it may not make people sick or affect the mortality rate, the mutation means the virus could spread faster and infect more people, said Stephen Love, president and CEO of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council.

“As a result, more hospitalizations, more capacity issues,” Love said. “In the next three to four weeks, [it’s] absolutely critical for us to monitor and try to get the word out to people to do what they need to do to prevent the spiral. ”