The state has made near real-time data on hospital bed capacity available as the novel coronavirus continues to spread across Florida. In all, about 40 percent of hospital beds statewide were available as of Thursday.
In intensive care-units, 37 percent of adult beds and 40 percent of pediatric beds were available. The Agency for Health Care Administration launched the data site on Thursday as the state announced that the number of cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, had risen to 8,010.
The state said 128 residents had died. The hospital-bed data is available by county, hospital and statewide. Broward County, which has been hard hit by the virus, had 41.5 percent of its beds available Thursday, including psychiatric and rehabilitation beds.
About 35 percent of the county’s adult ICU beds were not being used. Meanwhile, nearly 38 percent of all hospital beds in Miami-Dade County remained available, while about 32 percent of adult ICU beds were empty.
And in Palm Beach County, 43.35 percent of all hospital beds were available and about 35 percent of adult ICU beds were open. AHCA Secretary Mary Mayhew said in a prepared statement the data will help state officials and others deal with the public health crisis.
“This publicly reported data will be a critical statewide resource for anticipating individual hospital needs and monitoring bed availability across Florida,” she said.
“Hospital admissions and discharges are a fluid situation, and the reporting of bed availability and census will help inform emergency management decisions and coordinated local and statewide response in the event of hospital surge scenarios.”
