KY hospitals added nearly 200 ICU beds in the last month but availability still low

In response to the deluge of COVID-19 patients, Kentucky hospitals have added nearly 200 more staffed intensive care unit beds in the last month. Despite those gains, there were fewer ICU beds available on Tuesday than in late August, according to the president of the Kentucky Hospital Association.

On September 21, there were 1,440 total staffed ICU beds statewide, compared with 1,246 on August 24. But of the 1,440 yesterday, only 110 were open, compared with 126 in late August, KHA President Nancy Galvagni told members of the legislature’s Interim Joint Committee on Health, Welfare and Family Services on Wednesday in Frankfort.

It’s yet another metric signaling the burden Kentucky hospitals are under from a wave of COVID-19 patients. Though hospitalizations in the last two weeks haven’t increased — the potential first glimmer of a plateau and eventual decline — the number of new coronavirus cases and hospital patients in the ICU is still untenable, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday.

“We cannot sustain a plateau at this level with the number of people it would put in the hospital,” he warned.

Twice last week, the number of total available ICU beds in the commonwealth dipped below 100.

On Wednesday, Beshear announced 4,418 more cases of COVID-19 in the commonwealth and 52 deaths, including a 58-year-old man in Breathitt County, a 52-year-old woman and a 55-year-old man in Daviess County, a 38-year-old in Johnson County, a 34-year-old in McCreary County, a 39-year-old in Kenton County, and a 50- and 51-year-old in Fayette County.

“This is hitting people far younger than we ever saw previously in the pandemic,” Beshear said in a short video update.

The statewide positivity rate was 11.66% on Wednesday, down from 11.95% Tuesday. Sixty percent of residents are at least partially vaccinated.

To help “ease the strain” on the state’s health care system, Beshear has both requested federal aid in staffing and resources, and he’s deployed more than 400 members of Kentucky Army National Guard to assist at more than 24 of the state’s beleaguered hospitals for at least two weeks each. Earlier on Wednesday, a National Disaster Medical System Team arrived at Appalachian Regional Healthcare in Hazard.

Each NDMS typically includes a medical officer, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, supply officer, respiratory therapist, four registered nurses and three paramedics. These supplemental positions have helped staff additional beds in hospitals and support emergency room operations. The first NDMS team assisted staff at St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead earlier this month.

Beshear also requested a 30-day extension for the five Federal Emergency Management Agency strike teams tasked with transferring and transporting patients to hospitals that either have available beds or resources to provide needed treatment.

Each FEMA Emergency Medical Services (EMS) strike team includes five advanced life support ambulances. Each ambulance is staffed with one paramedic and one emergency medicine technician. They’ve transported patients regionally in Lexington, Somerset, Louisville, Owensboro and Corbin, Beshear said.