Palm Beach County ICU beds filling up

Several hospitals have few to none free amid spike

As Palm Beach County experienced a jump in new coronavirus cases Thursday, some county hospitals reported their intensive care beds are completely full.

Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration tracks the number of hospital beds available countywide and shows Palm Beach County overall has 74% of its 319 beds occupied. But looking closer at individual hospitals in the county, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, Palms West Hospital, and

Wellington Regional Medical Center have few or no adult ICU beds available, according to the AHCA data.

Statewide, new hospitalizations have risen daily in Florida for the last three days and the number of new cases have hit daily highs.

Palm Beach County has seen almost 1,500 hospitalizations out of more than 9,400 COVID-19 cases since the state started tracking the virus. Broward County has seen more than

1,700 out of more than 10,100 COVID-19 cases.

Broward County intensive care beds are also filling up. As of Wednesday, 79% of its 367 beds are occupied. Memorial Healthcare System has several of its hospitals with only one or two intensive care beds available, according to the AHCA data. Last month, Florida re-opened hospitals for elective surgeries, and some of those patients are now filling ICU beds, too, according to hospital leaders.

South Florida hospital leaders say the numbers can be misleading and they have the ability to add intensive care beds if needed. For example, Wellington Regional Medical Center said it can add up to four additional ICU beds by converting general beds. Broward Health CEO Gino Santorio said the health system has an additional wing of beds it can add to its intensive care supply. At this time, only four of its 55 ICU beds are available at Broward Health Medical Center, according to AHCA’s Emergency Surveillance System that tracks bed availability.

“We continue to have a decent number of COVID-19 patients coming to the ER to be checked,” said Allen Poston, spokesman for Wellington Regional Hospital. “Some are being admitted, but a vast majority are being discharged to self-care at home. The majority of those who need to be hospitalized are going into the ICU, and we have the ability to create more beds if needed.”

In the last three days alone, nearly 600 people in Florida were admitted to hospitals for COVID-19, almost half of them in South Florida, according to the Florida Department of Health.

In South Florida, one of every six people with COVID-19 is hospitalized, according to Florida Department of Health data, and medical directors at hospitals are concerned that ratio could worsen in the week ahead.

Stanley Marks, chief medical officer for Memorial Healthcare System, said his four Broward County hospitals had begun to see a drop-off in hospitalizations from coronavirus patients, until the last week when the state and county started to reopen the economy and people began to disregard guidelines. Marks said at Memorial West, eight people came in last weekend with coronavirus. The hospital had been down to one person a day — at most.

“I am predicting we see an even bigger uptick in cases coming in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach because of the number of positive cases is going up. There is no question a percentage who test positive will get sick … Maybe not immediately, but they tend to get sick four days or five days after they test positive,” Marks said.

At Memorial Healthcare System, only 15 of the total 96 ICU beds remain open at its five Broward County hospitals, with only one bed open each at Memorial Hospital West and Memorial Hospital Pembroke, according to the AHCA data.

“It’s important to watch what’s going to happen over next week to two weeks. It will tell us a lot,” Marks said.

Santorio at Broward Health said most South Florida hospitals are in communication and carefully watching for a potential surge of patients. But for now, he doesn’t see a reason to be concerned about the local healthcare system becoming overwhelmed.

“Even if we have four times the maximum number of COVID patients we had during the peak, we have the facilities to handle it,” he said. “The severity of what we are getting has declined.”

The Department of Health reports fewer people are dying from the new coronavirus. On Thursday, the Florida Department of Health reported 20 additional deaths from coronavirus in South Florida, contributing to the state’s total of 3,061 deaths. Overall the number of deaths has remained relatively stable for the last week, even as the number of new positive cases has shattered the previous high marks for new infections.

Cleveland Clinic Florida CEO Wael Barsoum said the number of deaths and new hospitalizations from coronavirus are data that he tracks continuously. “Right now those are static,” he said.

“What we are seeing may be an early harbinger of what may start happening in one or two weeks as we see positive patients requiring hospitalization,” Barsoum said. “If we had to, we could always go back to putting some elective care on hold. It’s amazing how quickly hospitals can clear out if we need to open capacity. For now, I think we’re in a good position.”

“I am predicting we see an even bigger uptick in cases coming in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach because of the number of positive cases is going up.”

Stanley Marks, chief medical officer at Memorial Healthcare System