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KU Hospital, metro seeing rapid depletion of ICU beds

The number of open ICU beds is diminishing at the University of Kansas Hospital and other hospitals as the region sees an increase in patients with acute COVID-19 infections. At KU, just over half of its 89 patients admitted for COVID-19 are in the ICU, the highest they have seen thus far.

During the University of Kansas Health System’s daily coronavirus briefing Wednesday morning, Dr. Dana Hawkinson, the hospital’s director of infection prevention and control, noted that of the hospital’s 89 patients with an acute COVID-19 infection, 47 of them are in the ICU.

Image courtesy of University of Kansas Medical Center

That number accounts for 53 percent of their acute coronavirus patients, the highest that number has ever been.

Of those 47 ICU patients with COVID-19, 26 of them are on a ventilator, Hawkinson said.

Hawkinson did note that overall coronavirus patients at the hospital appear to be fairly stable. Whenever the number of acute patients has risen above 100, it has quickly dipped back down below. They are not seeing a sustained surge, although Hawkinson stressed that even a stable number of 80-90 acute COVID-19 patients is a lot.

As for the Kansas City metro’s overall numbers, the area is seeing a current average of 177 new hospitalizations each day from COVID-19. The metro has a test positivity rate of 24.2 percent.

The positivity rate is a reflection of the number of positive tests divided by the total numbers of tests given. Experts have said that number is a better indicator of the current COVID community spread than simply looking at raw case numbers or deaths.

The number of ICU beds available is severely low in Jackson County and Clay County, where they have had a single-digit number of beds available for several days now.