COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hospital capacity increased slightly for both Med/Surg and intensive care unit beds throughout Ohio, but so did the number of COVID-19 patients.
"We can only look at correlations, not causations, but certainly there's a lot of things that go into this," Lucia Walinchus said.
Walinchus is the executive director of Eye on Ohio: Ohio Center for Journalism.
"When you look at 18% of your ICU being COVID patients. I mean, that's a huge percentage for just one diagnosis," Walinchus said. "There are a few things at play here. Number one: these are only staffed beds. We're looking at people who probably don't want to go to the hospital if they don't want this more contagious variant. And also we're looking at hospitals [that] are really trying to concentrate on increasing their capacity. Some places have stopped taking patients from other areas. Other places have stopped elective procedures overnight. Other hospitals aren't quite there yet."
COVID-19 patients accounted for 12.7% of ICU patients on Aug. 25 and 7.32% earlier that month.
Walinchus said some of the state's smaller major hospitals are being hit the hardest.
"In particular, Dayton. They hit one of their lowest lows. Akron and Toledo, also not a whole lot of capacity there," Walinchus said. "They're also smaller hospital systems, but just in terms of the number of beds available, that continues to be an issue each week."
Eye on Ohio fought the state for access to the number of available hospital beds and other equipment related to COVID-19. The organization filed a lawsuit in the Court of Claims of Ohio to obtain the requested information.
In Nov. 2020, Judge Patrick M. McGrath ruled the Ohio Department of Health must provide that data.
Click here to view the latest data from Eye on Ohio.