It's not a question of the hospital being 'near capacity' ... hospitals have a set number of beds available for China Virus patients. When those beds are full, the hospital cannot simply make more beds available.
China Virus patients have specific beds in a part of the hospital that are dedicated to it. Specific doctors, nurses, etc.. are also assigned. As it's been explained to me by a nurse and hospital administrator who are both working on this issue, it's not as simple as "beds." It takes time to shift doctors, nurses, etc.. over to China Virus care, and then before they are allowed to go back to their "regular duties" they have to quarantine for two weeks first.
So again, it's not that hospitals are at capacity, it's that the beds they've allocated for China Virus patients are "full."
As for me, I sure as heck have a new appreciation for all the doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers, hospital administrators, etc.. that are all working on this. It damn' sure didn't sound easy to me when it was being explained to me.
imagine a real pandemic.
one in which 10% of the US population dies.
that was the spanish flu, 100 yrs ago.
in that situation, there wouldn’t be any proportioning of beds for one illness or another. every hospital would be a mash triage unit.
we don’t have anything near this going on.