If your local hospital is not yet packed with patients, it could be good in a few years. That is the conclusion of the research book published in Jama Network Open The national hospital occupancy rate across this project will reach unsafe levels by 2032.
This paper raises important questions that journalists can strive to answer.
- Is your local hospital operated at risky capabilities? If so, how are the patients affected?
- How did hospital closures affect access to care?
- What strategies are local, state and federal policymakers considering addressing the growing demand for hospitalized patients?
Historical supply reversal
The bed supply wasn’t always tight. After the construction boom, government and private payers tried to reduce balloon hospitalization costs in the 1980s by reducing length of stay and shifting care to cheaper outpatient venues. Occupation It’s fallenleading to decades-long trends in integration and closure.
Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles used the federal government to find out where the capacity is currently heading. Dashboard A report of weekly hospital occupancy reports created as part of a Covid-19 pandemic data tracking effort. (As of May 1, 2024, hospitals no longer need to report occupancy data to the federal government; however, the American Hospital Association will collect it. Similar data. )
The pandemic appears to be a turning point where bed supply may have been overdue. Researchers reported a surge in national occupancy after the pandemic to 75%, compared to an average of around 64% in the decade before the public health emergency.
They wrote that the United States “achieved a new pandemic hospital occupancy steady state, 11 percentage points higher than before the pandemic.” They added that it appears to be driven by a 16% reduction in the number of staffed hospital beds rather than more hospitalizations.
The state becomes the highest paternal hospital occupancy rate
- Rhode Island: 88%
- Massachusetts: 86%
- Washington: 86%
- Maryland: 83%
- Missouri: 83%
- New Hampshire: 82%
- Minnesota: 82%
- Texas: 80%
- North Carolina: 80%
- new york: 80%
Source: Percentage represents the average weekly indicator reported to the CDC at hospitals in each state from May 2023 to April 2024. They are rounded to the nearest overall percentage.
It is a bad sign for patient safety. Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Washington (see chart) have already exceeded the 85% critical threshold.
note that Some evidence suggests Adverse events caused by overcrowding, such as medication errors and delayed care, particularly in small and rural hospitals, far below that 85% benchmark.
A busy future
Researchers predicted that the country’s hospitals will be more crowded over the next decade.
Due to no changes in hospitalization rates or staff bed supply, annual hospitalizations will rise from 36 million this year to 40 million in 2035 due to the age population, they found. In that case, the national occupancy rate will reach 85% for adult beds by 2032 and 3035 for adult and pediatric beds.
It is surprising because research in developed countries links overcrowding and staffing shortages. Increased mortality rates for hospitalized patients. In some areas, overcrowding already creates the following dangerous situations: Elderly patients staying in the emergency department overnight.
“If the US maintains occupying more than 85% of national hospitals, it is likely that we will see hundreds of thousands of American deaths each year,” said MD Prime Minister Richard Lucter, a professor of medicine at UCLA. News Release.
In their analysis, researchers did not explain factors such as recent growth in average length of stay, unexpected medical breakthroughs, and changes in population health that could affect utilization, or the ability to shift resources within the health care system.
The research team noted that trends in national hospital use may not be retained in individual states, counties, or hospitals.
A story to follow
Reporters can expose how a lack of inpatient beds on staff affects patient care and what hospital planners and government policy makers are doing to address current and future shortages.
There are many ideas in the air.
UCLA Researcher Citation measurement Reinforce capacity: Prevent more hospitals closure Bankruptcy by revamping the reimbursement scheme and regulating the involvement of private equity in healthcare. Saves clinicians burnout. Expanding the pipeline of medical professionals. Innovation in care delivery.
in Attached Edittwo emergency medical doctors advocated for a regulatory course amendment that would allow for a rapid expansion of hospital capacity.
That’s what 1,000 bed hospitals have been during the pandemic It was reportedly built In just 10 days in China, they noted, the US funding system “inverted” the outbreak of hospitalized patients to help the most sick patients.
