HOUSTON — There are currently 513 patients in emergency rooms waiting for hospital beds, including 148 people with COVID-19, according to the SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council.
SETRAC collects data daily from hospitals in 25 counties, including Harris County. The volume of COVID-19 patients has stretched big and small hospitals thin.
RELATED: By the numbers: Texas Medical Center
“It has been stress beyond what anyone can ever imagine,” Cassie Kavanaugh said.
Kavanaugh is the Chief Nursing Officer at Texas Emergency Hospital in Cleveland. She said her staff has been calling 50 hospitals a day trying to transfer patients. They don’t have an intensive care unit, which is what many need right now. Unfortunately, the answer on the other end of the phone is almost always no. They’ve been forced to transfer several patients out of state for care.
RELATED: Texas Children's Hospital: 300+ kids have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours
“I don’t know what else to say except 'disheartening.' You can hear it in their voice. Especially when they work so hard trying to get patients out, and it doesn’t happen in time,” Kavanaugh said.
Many hospitals in the Texas Medical Center aren’t accepting transfers because they’re saturated with COVID-19 patients, too.
Currently, at Houston Methodist, 200 patients are in the ER waiting for hospital beds to open up.
“(The wait) can be between six hours to six days. We’ve had many patients waiting, but they’re getting treatment while they’re waiting,” Dr. Ben Saldana said.
Saldana is the Director of the ER at Houston Methodist.
The TMC dashboard shows COVID-19 hospitalizations have finally plateaued, but with numbers still high, resources are stretched thin.
“We all collectively control what level our ERs are at capacity-wise, it’s really about masks and vaccinations,” Saldana said.