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THREADI was in complete shock yesterday when I learned the federal government had actually named hospitals in a massive database that revealed how many of their beds are filled with patients. This is usually secret to the public >> https://tinyurl.com/y5dnbsrd @WBEZ @WBEZpolitics
I first focused on ICU beds, because this is where the sickest patients end up. And during a pandemic, this is where patients with #COVID-19 or not are treated.
My initial findings in #Chicago >> small hospitals that mostly treat low-income people of color have small ICUs, and when they were full or nearly full, big teaching hospitals had plenty of beds to spare. @WF_Parker @GinaPiscitello @iwashyna @CraigKlugman
The disparities patients & doctors have experienced and witnessed are in plain sight. @DrMonicaPeek @HMPRG @fernandodemaio @nhannahjones @IMPACT4HC
Imagine if you were a patient, or a patient’s mother/father/sibling/friend and knew this. If you could, which you skip the hospital with a packed ICU and go to one with more open beds?
This summer, I wrote about how some hospitals during the first #COVID-19 surge were overwhelmed with patients. Yet other hospitals refused to take their transfers. No one coordinates transfers in the state. Hospitals are on their own: https://tinyurl.com/y88anr6e @RepFord8
That's still an issue, despite now being in the second surge in #Illinois. Here's what Roseland Community Hospital CEO Tim Egan on the South Side told my colleague @MariahWoelfel: ‘It’s no secret out there that transferring a patient has always been a challenge ...'
