ICU Bed Availability Raises Concerns Among Local Hospital Group

Tuesday morning during the Oklahoma City Council meeting, it was announced there were no ICU beds available at the moment in Oklahoma City.

"Looking at our numbers just this morning, I do not have any ICU beds available in Oklahoma City," said Heather Yazdanipour, Director, Regional Medical Response System, in the city council meeting.

During the meeting, the council listened to the Regional Medical Response System, known as RMRS, and the Oklahoma City-County Health Department reviewing the ongoing pandemic. But RMRS said this is just a snapshot of the ever-changing hospital availability.

"Looking at the numbers that are published, it does show we have a handful of beds available. I would have to physically call those hospitals to find out the capability of that bed is," said Yazdanipour. "What we are claiming available is. Is it available because we don't have a nurse to staff it? Or is it truly available to put a patient in?"

Before the pandemic, hospitals said there were not enough nurses to take care of people.

Now the coronavirus is straining health care further.

The city said masks help keep hospitalizations and COVID-19-positive cases down, hospitals are still feeling the surge.

Especially when it comes to the Intensive Care Unit.

“Which is making the availability of our beds nonexistent at this point," said Yazdanipour, "So having to find that bed out of the region."

The state health department responded to the concerns saying, “OSDH is closely monitoring hospital capacity and working with hospitals."

Adding, "There are a lot of factors that can influence data on any given day, and we will continue to monitor hospitalizations closely."