Dallas COVID-19 Czar Is 'Deeply Concerned' About the Next Few Weeks
One day away from Thanksgiving, the city of Dallas’ COVID-19 czar says he is “deeply concerned” about patient demand pushing the region’s hospitals beyond their capacities. Dallas County incurred several days in a row of more than 1,800 new COVID infections. With hospitals filling up, healthcare leaders are nervous about having enough staff to handle the coming surge of COVID patients in addition to standard seasonal demands. Dallas County is joining many others across the country in anticipating what appears to be a harsh winter.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the trauma service area that includes Dallas-Fort Worth has only 9 percent of its total hospital beds available and just 6 percent of its intensive care unit beds. Under normal circumstances, one in three beds is empty at this time of year. “We are deeply concerned about overwhelming healthcare capacity,” says Dr. Kelvin Baggett, the COVID-19 czar who is keeping his eye on the data. “They are overburdened and have combated this for over eight months now.”
While hospitals can expand and convert space for additional beds, the limiting factor becomes the staff. While he didn’t have a total number, Baggett says he’s receiving reports from area hospitals that caregivers are catching the virus in the community and having to call in. Unlike earlier in the year when only certain areas of the country were experiencing surges, the entire U.S. is setting records for new cases. That means no traveling nurses or physicians can act as a release valve for the hospitalizations stacking up in Dallas and elsewhere.
“Nationally, the strain put on the healthcare capacity is creating a staffing demand that has escalated tremendously,” Baggett says. “We have to consider the burden we are placing on our healthcare heroes and not do anything avoidable to put them more at risk.”
Read more: https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2020/11/dallas-thanksgiving-covid-19-report/
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