The Oklahoman

Hospitals reporting few beds available

3 health systems begin giving capacity reports

- Dana Branham

Hospital beds are scarce across four Oklahoma City health systems, according to capacity figures they reported Monday amid a wave of COVID-19 cases across the state.

Integris Health, Mercy, OU Health and SSM Health St. Anthony began reporting their own capacity data this month, which they said was an effort to be transparen­t about the impact of the surge on their hospitals.

The reports will come every Monday, Wednesday and Friday “until our health care community begins to see relief from this current surge,” the health systems said.

Here are the latest figures reported by each of the four health systems, as of Monday. The reports are a snapshot in time, as hospital capacity can change hour-to-hour as patients are admitted and discharged.

h Integris Health: 225 COVID-19 patients in its hospitals, with 191 of those patients in the Oklahoma City metro area. No beds, including ICU beds, are available.

h Mercy: 120 inpatients with COVID-19 in Mercy hospitals across Oklahoma, with 64 at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City. No beds, including ICU beds, are available, and one patient in the emergency room was waiting for an ICU bed.

h OU Health: Across all three of its hospitals, including Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health, there are 47 inpatients with COVID-19. OU Health has no available beds for COVID-19 patients.

h SSM Health St. Anthony: 125 inpatients with COVID-19 in SSM Health St. Anthony hospitals. No ICU beds are available.

The state Health Department no longer collects or reports hospital capacity data. Health officials have said they will restart reporting hospital capacity figures in the coming weeks.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also collects and reports hospital capacity data. But a top state health official told StateImpac­t Oklahoma that the HHS figures don’t always accurately reflect capacity in Oklahoma’s hospitals.

For more COVID-19 data, visit The Oklahoman’s coronaviru­s tracker.

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