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Ohio Hospitals Considering “Creative” Options As COVID Cases Climb

By: Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau
Posted on: Tuesday, November 17, 2020

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Monday was the third day in a row for record numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ohio. That has health care facilities considering their options.

The numbers of COVID patients in Ohio hospitals are more than double what they were a month ago, and hospitalizations have set a record nearly every day in that time period.

A second day of record Ohio COVID hospitalizations: 3,175 (up from a record 3,104 yesterday; 11.87% of all beds have COVID patients)
755 in ICU (down from 767; 16.54% of beds)
368 on ventilators (up from 356; 7.1% capacity)
Positivity rate 11.9%; 7-day moving average 12.1%

— Karen Kasler (@karenkasler) November 15, 2020

Six sites were identified in the early days of the pandemic as possible alternative or surge health care sites, including five convention centers and the Case Western Reserve University Health Education Campus.

Those could still be used, but Mike Abrams with the Ohio Hospital Association said children’s hospitals are a more likely avenue for young adults with COVID.

“Before we set up the convention center, we may get a lot more creative about the nature of an age of the patients that are being cared for at the very high quality children’s hospitals throughout our state,” Abrams said in an interview for “The State of Ohio” this weekend.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus will start admitting patients under 26 sent to them by other hospitals.

This is happening as low staffing levels at hospitals statewide are raising concerns, especially at the Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth and University Hospitals systems in northeast Ohio.