ICU beds are filling up in NC as COVID surges. This map shows how your area is faring
The number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus in North Carolina has reached record highs every day for a week, and researchers have warned hospitals could soon run out of beds.
Some already have, according to new federal data.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday released COVID-19 capacity data at individual hospitals according to the number of available ICU beds. Previously, that data was only available on a statewide level.
“When data are aggregated at county or state level, the average across all facilities can mask what is happening at each local hospital,” the agency said in a news release. “Using this new data, the public will have access to hospital-specific COVID-19 numbers to understand hyper-localized community impacts.”
In North Carolina, more than 95% of ICU hospital beds are occupied in at least eight cities and towns — including Durham, according to an analysis of the DHS data by The New York Times.
Some of the state’s biggest metros, including Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro, are at more than 80% capacity.
The Times’ analysis shows the seven-day average patient count by hospital service area for the week ending Dec. 3. It does not include counts from hospitals operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service, which were excluded from the DHS data.
A closer look
At least 2,440 patients were hospitalized with the coronavirus Wednesday in North Carolina — marking the seventh day in a row of record-breaking hospitalizations, The News & Observer reported.
Most of the hospitals nearing their ICU bed capacity service rural areas of the state, where the number of recent coronavirus cases has spiked.
Marion in Western North Carolina, which has just one ICU bed, is at 100% capacity, the Times data show. So are Tarboro and Ahoskie in Eastern North Carolina, which have eight ICU beds each.
Mount Airy on the Virginia border, Laurinburg on the South Carolina border and Sanford in central North Carolina are at 99% capacity. All three areas have less than 10 ICU beds.
Monroe, just outside of Charlotte with 14 ICU beds, is at 97% capacity, as is Durham.
Durham is the lone holdout among the eight cities and towns in North Carolina whose ICU beds are at or near capacity that services a major metropolitan with a population of more than 321,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau records.
Hospitals in the Durham area have a total of 131 ICU beds — 127 of which are full, according to the Times’ analysis.
Nearby Raleigh, by comparison, has 284 beds. About 240, or 85%, were full as of Dec. 3, DHS data show. At least 209 of Charlotte’s 259 beds, or 81%, were full in the same time frame.
Under normal circumstances, the nationwide average hospital bed occupancy rate in 2012 was 61%, according to Beckers Hospital Review. Healthcare analytic company Definitive Healthcare reported that figure at 49% in 2019 with some difference between urban and rural hospitals.
Dr. Howard Markel, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, said in a university news release in early March that “many emergency rooms and hospitals already operate close to capacity on a good day, without coronavirus.”
But health officials don’t want that in the midst of a pandemic, McClatchy News previously reported.
“Adding a sharp spike in very ill COVID-19 patients to that traffic could mean some people don’t get the care they need – whether they have coronavirus or not,” Markel said.
The big picture
The number of daily COVID-19 hospitalizations in North Carolina has nearly doubled since the beginning of November, and it’s been higher than 2,000 every day since Nov. 30, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
At the current pace, the state is on track to run out of ICU beds for those patients 4.5 weeks, The News & Observer reported, citing a new report by The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC.
It would take roughly six weeks for North Carolina to reach its capacity of hospital beds statewide, according to The N&O.
“While we hope we can achieve another reduction in case and hospitalization growth, the recent rapid growth in cases and high testing positivity ratios makes us less optimistic than in the past,” write Mark Holmes of the UNC Gillings School of Public Health and Hilary Campbell and Aaron McKethan at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy.
Gov. Roy Cooper acknowledged the strain on hospitals Tuesday while announcing a new executive order that includes a 10 p.m. curfew.
“We know that hospital capacity is threatened here, and we can do things to prevent that,” he said. “The study showed what would happen if we aren’t doing anything else, and so we are doing that something else today to try to affect this trajectory.”
This story was originally published December 9, 2020, 4:39 PM.
