Do ICUs generally have empty beds? Do hospitals in CA have enough money to have that additional space and staffing to have unused capacity just waiting for a surge? My gf, an ER nurse who has worked in five local hospitals, says the only time she has ever seen an ICU with empty beds was during extended heavy snow storms. At least in her hospitals, it is a question of who is most critical coming in, and who can be stabilized enough to get out of the ICU.
I don’t know what to say about that. Either there are really a lot of people who need ICU care - in which case we should invest in expanding ICU care - or it’s some kind of fraud. I’d be interested to see some statistics on what % of ICU patients can walk out the door if the hospitals didn’t insist on wheeling them out.
If hospitals have had shortages of beds the last 18 months can someone explain all of the TikTok videos shot in hospitals with dancing nurses?
Empty beds, especially empty ICU beds, are money losers.
Our ICUs were always running over.....wayyy before Covid. They have gurneys lining the halls of the ICUs here because there were never enough beds. Hubby was a firefighter, been retired 15 years now, and when he was working they’d divert ambulances to other hospitals because the ICU was full at the closest one. Just another covid scare story.