Health care inequities add to frustration as hospitals face fifth COVID surge

On a recent morning at Loretto Hospital on Chicago’s West Side, beds and recliners were lined up in the hallway of the emergency department.

The crammed hallways at the Austin hospital led the union representing some of its health care workers to hold a news conference urging other facilities to voluntarily accept transfers of patients from financially strapped safety-net hospitals like Loretto. “We just don’t have the room,” said Wellington Thomas, an ER technician.

Still, that federal data broadly illustrates gaps in available space, with some hospitals overflowing with patients and others, though busy, with open beds. Pritzker’s administration has said it’s doing its best to coordinate with hospitals while also praising health care workers dealing with staggering patient loads.

[Don't miss] Chicago cites 10 restaurants, 6 other businesses for violating vaccine requirement orderAccording to the data, nearly half of hospitals reported more than 20% of their adult ICU beds were available in the seven-day period ending Jan. 6. Meanwhile, nearly a fourth averaged less than 5% availability. That difference generally held true even when looking at the larger numbers of inpatient adult beds.

NorthShore University Health System said it’s not sure why federal data showed its Evanston hospital had so many inpatient and ICU beds open, since it’s been running at or near capacity. Loretto also said it’s busier than the data suggests.Rush University Medical Center told the Tribune it had about 20% of its staffed inpatient beds and 33% of its ICU beds available Thursday.

The Chicago hospital landscape includes large hospital systems, facilities tied to universities, and others that struggle to operate independently in lower-income neighborhoods. That mix has affected hospitals’ options in adapting to the pandemic crush.Hospitals that are part of larger systems say they have been able to transfer patients among their own facilities to try to even things out, while bigger hospitals have looked for ways to expand capacity.

All hospitals are struggling. Perhaps Loretto should have saved the vaccines for their patients rather than given them to those who had connections to hospital leadership.

Do you have to be morbidly obese to work there?

THATS OK ROB THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO COVER THE COST OF MORE ROOMS

You guys provide a lot of data that the article openly stated the data shown to be proven wrong or inaccurate. Does any other industry allow so much incorrect/inaccurate federal data submitted

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