How full have suburban hospitals become?
More than a third of the state's 171 short-term care and critical access hospitals have reported at least one week where 80% or more of the hospital's staffed inpatient adult beds were occupied.
That includes at least nine suburban hospitals, most of which reported several weeks where the average portion of those beds in use was above 80%, according to a nationwide report released this week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The report tracks hospital occupancy and COVID-19 caseloads for 18 weeks between July 31 and Nov. 27. It tracks the number of staffed beds available, which in many cases is less than the total number of beds in the hospital. Some hospitals did not have complete figures for all 18 weeks.
Illinois public health officials monitor hospital occupancy regionally to determine if COVID-19 mitigation restrictions should be implemented. If hospital bed occupancy exceeds 80% in a region, that could trigger those restrictions on business operations and social gathering sizes.
Aurora's Rush Copley Medical Center reported 17 weeks where the hospital's occupancy of adult inpatient beds exceeded 80%. That was the case at Edward Hospital in Naperville for 13 weeks and for 12 weeks at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan, according to the federal report.
While the numbers appear alarming, Edward Hospital President and CEO Joseph Dant said hospital administrators were ready to handle the current surge.
Edward has about 120 more beds that aren't consistently staffed even at the hospital's peak occupancy, such as during the first week of November when administrators reported an average of nearly 95% of the adult inpatient beds were occupied, according to the HHS report.
Edward averaged 77 COVID-19 patients a day that week, less than a quarter of the hospital's daily average of total patients for the week.
“The other trigger we could have pulled before going into overflow space was slowing down or stopping our elective services,” Dant said. “We've refined our plan since the initial spring surge because we learned a few things that would help us get ready for the late fall/early winter surge.”
Other suburban hospitals that reported weeks where adult inpatient bed occupancy rates exceeded 80% were Adventist GlenOaks in Glendale Heights, Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, Elmhurst Hospital, Lake Behavioral Hospital in Waukegan and St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.
None of the hospitals — except Lake Behavioral, which at times was treating all 60 patients for the virus — reported a weekly average COVID-19 patient load of more than 45% during the 18 weeks, according to the HHS report.
Among the 63 hospitals across Illinois where the average inpatient bed occupancy rate exceeded 80% for the week, 16 reported that was the case for more than half the 18-week period included in the HHS report.
Only five hospitals — the University of Chicago Medical Center, Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, Loyola Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park and St. John's Hospital in Springfield — reported all 18 weeks of averaging more than 80% of adult inpatient beds in use.
State health officials also monitor capacity issues at each hospital's intensive care units to determine if mitigation restrictions are necessary. And they keep an eye on bed availability to make sure an entire region doesn't run out of available ICU beds, which are much fewer than standard inpatient hospital beds.
“There's already an internal system, if you will, between hospitals where if there is a need to transfer to one provider, one doctor talks to a doctor at another hospital and arranges for a transfer,” said Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “So fortunately we have not gotten in a situation where there are no beds available in a region.”
Six suburban hospitals reported weekly ICU capacity at or above 80% at least twice during the 18-week span, according to the HHS report.
Alexian Brothers in Elk Grove Village reported the hospital's ICU beds were occupied more than 80% of the time in 12 of the 18 weeks. However, Alexian Brothers also reported not all ICU beds were being staffed each day and administrators could add more ICU beds if the hospital experienced a surge of critical patients.
Adventist GlenOaks, Advocate Condell, Rush Copley, St. Alexius and Presence Mercy Medical Center in Aurora also reported average weekly ICU capacity at 80% or more during that time frame.