COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio experienced a slight improvement in hospital capacity after a series of weeks where the number of available-staffed hospital beds was dwindling.

What You Need To Know

  • Each week, Eye on Ohio: Ohio Center for Journalism updates its ongoing data tally of the state's available hospital bed numbers

  • Individual hospitals report their numbers to the state and the state then sends that information to Eye on Ohio

  • Eye on Ohio reported 860 available Med/Surg (regular) beds Oct. 22

Eye on Ohio reported 860 available Med/Surg (regular) beds across the state on Oct. 22, which is 370 more than what was reported seven days prior.

Capacity within intensive care units also increased. 

According to Lucia Walinchus, executive director for Eye on Ohio, the number of available ICU beds for the week of Oct. 18 slid between a high of 495 and a low of 195.

Prior to this, Eye on Ohio reported 142 on Oct. 15, 167 on Oct. 8 and 184, set on Oct. 1.

"At our peak in ICUs, about 21% of those beds were COVID patients. We're now down to about 15.5%, so we're definitely trending in the right direction, but it's obviously starting to get colder right now.  It's a battle between do we have the staffing levels versus are we going to see an uptick of flu and COVID and everything else that we usually see in the winter?" Walinchus said.

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 November 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.

Eye on Ohio: Ohio Center for Journalism has tracked the number of available Med/Surg [regular] hospital beds as well as the number of beds within intensive care units throughout Ohio since the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.