BEAUMONT, Texas — Coronavirus cases are reaching new highs across the state. Unfortunately, recent COVID-19 data looks similar to the numbers we saw during the summer surge.
Numbers provided by Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council show that all 86 ICU beds in Jefferson County are filled, and that the county's back-up facility is also out of ICU beds.
Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick said now is a critical time and our hospital systems must implement their back-up plan.
Here's a break down of the numbers. There is a total of 86 ICU beds in Jefferson County. 18 of them are occupied by COVID-19 patients and the other 68 are occupied by patients with serious heart issues and major injuries.
Mid Jefferson Extended Care Hospital in Beaumont has been tapped as the county's back-up facility.
According to the chief operating officer, all 30 beds are full and 25 are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
We spoke with the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals. An organization dedicated to addressing the needs of rural and community hospitals. A spokesperson is concerned about our region’s hospitalizations.
“When we exceed our ability to treat, bad things happen. People die,” said John Henderson with TORCH.
According to Henderson, our local hospital systems must now implement surge capacity plans. We asked Judge Branick what that looks like. Judge Branick said hospitals are required to add an additional 24 beds, bringing the county's total to 110 ICU beds. If the need keeps growing, the state has more guidelines to find open beds.
“The second layer of that is you expand into nontraditional areas like nursing homes and surgery centers to increase capacity," Henderson said. "And then there's actually a plan to go into convention centers and things of that nature. I think the fourth and final tear would be going to hotels. I hope it doesn't come to that.”
Henderson said we can all do our part to help relief the pressure mounting growing on an already strained healthcare system.
“If we are going to control this thing, it takes everybody working together and doing everything they can to stay safe," Henderson said.
We reached out to Christus and Baptist Hospitals. Christus responded in part saying its system has several ICU beds open. It appears, the surge plan has been implemented there.
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