{"id":37,"date":"2026-11-07T05:07:59","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T05:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/?p=37"},"modified":"2026-11-07T05:07:59","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T05:07:59","slug":"philsugar-all-the-hospitals-are-full-in-houston-overwhelmed-icus-leave-covid-19-patients-waiting-in-ers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/?p=37","title":{"rendered":"PhilSugar | \u201cAll the Hospitals Are Full\u201d: In Houston, Overwhelmed ICUs Leave COVID-19 Patients Waiting in ERs"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2014 Houston hospitals have been forced to treat hundreds of COVID-19 patients free sugar daddy sites Philippines<\/a> in their emergency rooms \u2014 sometimes for several hours or multiple days \u2014 as they scramble to open additional intensive care beds for the wave of seriously ill people streaming through their doors, according to internal numbers shared with NBC News and ProPublica.
\nAt the same time, the region\u2019s 12 busiest hospitals are increasingly telling emergency responders that they cannot safely accept new patients, at a rate nearly three times that of a year ago, according to data reviewed by reporters.
\nHelp Us Continue Reporting on COVID-19
\nAre you a public health worker or front-line medical provider? Do most active sugar dating community Philippines<\/a> you work for or with a government agency involved in the effort to protect the public? Have you or your family personally been affected?
\nShow us what we should be covering or serve as sugar baby verification Philippines<\/a> an expert to make sure we\u2019re on track.
\nNote:
\nIf you develop emergency warning signs for COVID-19, verified sugar dating profiles<\/a> such as difficulty breathing or bluish lips, get medical attention immediately.
\nThe CDC has more information on what to do if you are sick.
\nThe increase in ambulance diversions, coupled with the spike in patients being held indefinitely in emergency rooms, are the latest indicators that Houston sugar dating safety Philippines<\/a> hospitals are straining to keep up with a surge of new coronavirus patients. ProPublica and NBC News have previously reported that a public hospital in Houston
\nran out of a medication to treat COVID-19 patients
\nand that a
\nspike in at-home deaths
\nfrom cardiac arrest suggests that the death toll from the coronavirus may be higher than official statistics show.
\nOn Thursday,
\n3,812 people were hospitalized with COVID-19
\nin the region, including more than 1,000 in intensive care units, a record since the pandemic began. At the same time, since Texas officials have not issued another stay-at-home order to slow the virus\u2019s spread, hospitals are also still seeing a steady flow of patients in need of care as a result of car accidents, violent crime and heat-related medical emergencies.
\nOfficials in Houston are warning that the situation could become a replay of what happened in New York City in March and April, when thousands of people died as hospitals struggled to keep up with the surge of patients, but without the same level of government intervention to stem the tide.
\nTypically when people arrive at a hospital emergency department, they\u2019re evaluated and treated by the medical staff. Those sick or injured enough to require hospitalization are then moved to other areas of the hospital for specialized care. But increasingly in Houston, particularly for patients suffering from COVID-19, there\u2019s nowhere for them to go.
\n\u201cNormally that patient would just go to an ICU bed, but because there are no beds available, they continue to board in the emergency room,\u201d said Harris Health System president and CEO Esmaeil Porsa, who oversees the city\u2019s two public safety-net hospitals. \u201cIt is not an optimal level of care. This is not something we would choose to do. The only reason this is happening is because we are being forced to do it.\u201d
\nAlthough hospital leaders say they are working to provide high-quality care for patients being held in emergency rooms \u2014 in part by bringing specialized medical staff and equipment to patients being treated there \u2014
\nstudies done before the coronavirus pandemic show
\nthat the longer patients stay in ERs,
\nthe worse their outcomes
\n.
\nICUs and other hospital units are staffed with doctors, nurses and other support personnel who have specialized training and experience caring for critically ill patients in need of specific medical interventions, whereas the mission of emergency department medical workers is to quickly assess patients, stabilize them and get them to where they need to be.
\n\u201cThe problem is you can\u2019t get them to where they need to be, and now it puts the ER doc in the position of having to function like the hospitalist or the intensive care doctor, and that\u2019s not a role that we\u2019re really supposed to be in,\u201d said Dr. Cedric Dark, an emergency physician at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. \u201cThe bad thing about having any patient boarded in the emergency department, regardless of the situation, is that it slows down the beginning of care for somebody who needs hospitalization, and the beginning of care for any medical condition is the most crucial period of time.\u201d
\nThe same scenario is playing out at hospitals across the Houston region.
\nA daily status report prepared Wednesday by the SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council, which coordinates the Houston region\u2019s emergency medical response, showed multiple hospitals running out of immediately available nonsurgical ICU beds, including both of the city\u2019s top-tier trauma centers, Ben Taub Hospital and Memorial Hermann\u2019s flagship hospital in the Texas Medical Center.
\nAs of Wednesday afternoon, about 145 patients were being held in emergency departments throughout the Memorial Hermann Health System, according to internal numbers provided separately by active sugar dating sites Philippines<\/a> a Memorial Hermann physician and confirmed by a hospital executive. Several other Houston area hospitals have reported holding multiple patients in their ERs, including four with more than a dozen.
\nDr. Jamie McCarthy, an executive vice president at Memorial Hermann Health System and an emergency room physician, acknowledged that the coronavirus crisis has forced his teams to hold more patients in ERs.
\n\u201cAll the hospitals are full,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cAll the hospitals in the city are boarding patients. We are expanding capacity, but we can\u2019t turn those on immediately. It requires staffing. It requires nurses and doctors to come in. And so, as we\u2019ve continued to expand our inpatient capacity, we\u2019re just keeping up with the volume that\u2019s coming in.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s not unusual for a small number of patients to be held in ERs on busy days, especially during flu season, but three Houston ER physicians said they have never seen so many patients receiving prolonged care in emergency departments, or for such long periods of time.
\nAlthough treating patients in the ER for more than a few hours is \u201cnot ideal,\u201d McCarthy said, Memorial Hermann has worked to mitigate the impact on patients by sending intensive care doctors and other specialists to emergency departments, to ensure patients are receiving quality care regardless of where they\u2019re located.
\nBut he warned that active sugar dating members Philippines<\/a> there\u2019s a limit to what Houston hospitals can do to respond to the crisis.
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\n\u201cWe are adding more capacity, but we are absolutely stretched now, and if it keeps going this way, we\u2019re going to run out of room. We\u2019re sugar baby asking for GCash<\/a> going to look like New York,\u201d McCarthy said, emphasizing the need for Houston residents to stay home and avoid crowds to slow the virus\u2019s spread.
\nOne of Houston\u2019s largest hospital systems, HCA Healthcare, also has been caring for dozens of COVID-19 patients in its emergency departments. In a statement, HCA spokeswoman Debra Burbridge said hospital officials have taken steps to reduce the impact on patients, including sending staff members who would normally be performing or assisting with elective surgeries \u2014 which have been suspended under an order by the governor \u2014 to treat patients with COVID-19.
\nDr. Kusum Mathews, an assistant professor of critical care and emergency medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, said monthly allowance sugar dating<\/a> hospitals can take steps to reduce the risks of overcrowded ERs, including some of those described by Memorial Hermann and HCA officials.
\nTreating patients sickened by the virus \u201chas outstripped every stretch of our imagination,\u201d Mathews said. \u201cWe have had to put beds in hallways, double up patient rooms \u2026 just to allow for offloading the emergency department to get more patients in.\u201d
\nWhile Houston\u2019s top hospital executives have repeatedly said they can add hundreds of new intensive care beds to meet the demand, at least for the next couple of weeks, the number of patients being treated in emergency rooms demonstrates the difficulty of executing those plans in the midst of a rapidly growing crisis, officials say.
\n\u201cThose things are not like a switch-key type of activity,\u201d said Porsa, the Harris Health System CEO, noting that his hospitals have had to send patients to hospitals outside of Houston to make room. \u201cThe bottleneck to do that is really staffing. As you can imagine, ICU nurses are not a dime a dozen. They are very hard to come by, and it takes time to actually be able to do that.\u201d
\nThe logjam of patients being treated in ERs has also led to delayed emergency response times across the city, according to Houston Fire Department officials.
\nWhen hospitals get overloaded, they ask regional authorities to divert ambulances elsewhere. For example, Memorial Hermann\u2019s northeast hospital was on diversion status just 2% of the time during an eight-day period in late June and early July last year; it was on diversion status 58% of the time during the same time period this year. At Houston\u2019s busiest public hospital, Ben Taub, the number jumped to 81% from 58%.
\nThe problem, said Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Matt White, is that when every hospital is maxed out, ambulance crews have no choice but to take patients to emergency departments that are too busy to quickly receive them. And by law, hospitals must screen and stabilize any patient who arrives.
\n\u201cWhen everyone is on diversion,\u201d White said, \u201cnobody is on diversion.\u201d
\nEarlier coronavirus outbreaks inundated emergency rooms in New York City and Detroit, but lockdown orders in those cities led to fewer car accidents and a reduction in violent crime, freeing more space in ERs for COVID patients.
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\nWith most Texas businesses still open and no mandatory stay-at-home order, hospitals in Houston and other COVID-19 hot spots face the added challenge of making room for COVID patients while still dealing with a steady flow of patients seeking care for other medical emergencies.
\nAnd across the country, people with chronic health problems who delayed seeking care earlier in the pandemic are now showing up for treatment, taking up beds, said Dr. Marc Eckstein, medical director of the Los Angeles Fire Department and a professor of discussing expectations in sugar dating<\/a> emergency medicine at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
\nDespite these challenges, McCarthy, the Memorial Hermann executive, said it\u2019s essential that people continue to come to the hospital for medical emergencies. He pointed to an NBC News and ProPublica
\nreport this week
\nthat showed a growing number of people are dying suddenly at home, before emergency responders can reach them.
\n\u201cIf a patient believes they have a serious medical issue, they still need to come to the emergency department,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cWe will make the capacity to take care of them. Delaying care for time-sensitive emergencies is time we don\u2019t get back. If they wait to call for help when they are having a heart attack, it will be worse than if they come in early.\u201d
\nHelp Us Continue Reporting on COVID-19
\nAre you a public health worker or front-line medical provider? Do you work for or with a government agency involved in the effort to protect the public? Have you or your family personally been affected? Show us what we should be covering or serve as an expert to make sure we\u2019re on track.
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HOUSTON \u2014 Houston hospitals have been forced to treat hundreds of COVID-19 patients free sugar daddy sites Philippines in their emergency rooms \u2014 sometimes for several hours or multiple days \u2014 as they scramble to open additional intensive care beds for the wave of seriously ill people streaming through their doors, according to internal numbers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}