Since November 10th, the Manitowoc County Health Department has been reporting the percentage of ICU beds in use in the 10 hospitals in the Northeast Region of the state.
In that time, the percentage has risen as high as 87% and as low as 69%, averaging out at 82.19%. While that may seem like a shockingly high percentage, Tom Veeser, the Chief Nursing Officer at Holy Family Memorial, told SeehaferNews.com, “That is pretty typical for this time of year, to have 70 to 80% of your ICU beds occupied.” In fact, he elaborated, saying, “Anything less than 80% occupied in the ICU typically doesn’t cause any of us to have a concern.”
Veeser explained that the reason for people occupying those beds is different year to year. “Historically we may have influenza patients or some other patients that would be occupying those beds,” he explained. “This year…5-10% of those occupied beds are COVID, and sometimes as much as 20 or 30% as we have gone up and down.” Even if one hospital ended up being filled to max capacity, which several did throughout November, the others have been there to help their patients.
He said, “We’ve been working together since March. If we felt like we were running out of resources, and we have periodically, we work all together to aline with our state resources and our county officials to adjust as needed.” So, while the statistic is good to know, Veeser said the general public doesn’t really need to worry about it.
