Wednesday night several local hospitals fill up

[Anonymous]

On Wednesday night, several local hospitals issues red and yellow codes. Montgomery county issued a code blue indicating that the jurisdictional system is temporality taxed to its limits.

https://moderatelymoco.com/local-hospitals-fill-up-wednesday-night-1-6-2021-moco-issues-code-blue-many-hospitals-issue-alerts/

[Anonymous]

why?

[Anonymous]

The Christmas surge is reaching our area hospitals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:why?

Unclear if it is covid or related to protests down town

[Anonymous]

I think it's easy to take these out of context. It is not unusual for hospitals to be on yellow or red alert during flu season.

I don't know where to find statistics on how often this happens, just just look the limited number of captures of the CHATS Region V website taken by the web archive:

Monday, December 19, 2016 10:23:45 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20161220032423/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/Default.aspx?hdRegion=5

Wednesday, March 23, 2016 9:13:59 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20160324011529/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/default.aspx?hdregion=5

Tuesday, February 23, 2016 3:18:28 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20160223201925/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/Default.aspx?hdRegion=5


I didn't cherry-pick these dates. These are simply the days the Web Archive had during past flu seasons. Now, obviously the this year this is happening due to COVID, and not the flu, but the broader point here is that hospitals are accustomed to operating at these levels- they divert patients when they can, and there usually is some wiggle room in accommodating additional patients if absolutely necessary. The question is whether the region's hospitals as a whole are overloaded. And when you look at Region 5 combined with Region 3 (Baltimore), it's doesn't look great.

[Anonymous]

In Moco, its code blue, its unusual and its because of Covid. We went code blue for a period of time in the spring too due to Covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's easy to take these out of context. It is not unusual for hospitals to be on yellow or red alert during flu season.

I don't know where to find statistics on how often this happens, just just look the limited number of captures of the CHATS Region V website taken by the web archive:

Monday, December 19, 2016 10:23:45 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20161220032423/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/Default.aspx?hdRegion=5

Wednesday, March 23, 2016 9:13:59 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20160324011529/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/default.aspx?hdregion=5

Tuesday, February 23, 2016 3:18:28 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20160223201925/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/Default.aspx?hdRegion=5


I didn't cherry-pick these dates. These are simply the days the Web Archive had during past flu seasons. Now, obviously the this year this is happening due to COVID, and not the flu, but the broader point here is that hospitals are accustomed to operating at these levels- they divert patients when they can, and there usually is some wiggle room in accommodating additional patients if absolutely necessary. The question is whether the region's hospitals as a whole are overloaded. And when you look at Region 5 combined with Region 3 (Baltimore), it's doesn't look great.

Fair enough. None of these times have the county at blue alert though. And Thanks for the top on using the web archive because I would like to dig more into past data on this.

I agree with your overall conclusion, I need to look at the local data more closely too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's easy to take these out of context. It is not unusual for hospitals to be on yellow or red alert during flu season.

I don't know where to find statistics on how often this happens, just just look the limited number of captures of the CHATS Region V website taken by the web archive:

Monday, December 19, 2016 10:23:45 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20161220032423/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/Default.aspx?hdRegion=5

Wednesday, March 23, 2016 9:13:59 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20160324011529/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/default.aspx?hdregion=5

Tuesday, February 23, 2016 3:18:28 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20160223201925/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/Default.aspx?hdRegion=5


I didn't cherry-pick these dates. These are simply the days the Web Archive had during past flu seasons. Now, obviously the this year this is happening due to COVID, and not the flu, but the broader point here is that hospitals are accustomed to operating at these levels- they divert patients when they can, and there usually is some wiggle room in accommodating additional patients if absolutely necessary. The question is whether the region's hospitals as a whole are overloaded. And when you look at Region 5 combined with Region 3 (Baltimore), it's doesn't look great.

Fair enough. None of these times have the county at blue alert though. And Thanks for the top on using the web archive because I would like to dig more into past data on this.

I agree with your overall conclusion, I need to look at the local data more closely too

It's even a bit iffy to look just at Montgomery County. Despite being a big county, there really aren't any major hospitals. There's a couple big hospitals- Holy Cross and Shady Grove- but the only "trauma center" in the county is Suburban, which is actually quite small. Montgomery County has always been reliant on the hospitals in DC and Baltimore, which is why I looked at Region 3.

I was very surprised to see Johns Hopkins Hospital on yellow/red alert. That's a very large hospital. (Though, I know they have a reputation in the region for not wanting to take transfers, so I wonder how full they really are.)

[Anonymous]

A number of the hospitals in the DMV were completely full last evening.

I work for an insurance company and we were reviewing our overnight admissions and we had patients who were taken by ambulance way out of DC for care overnight.

My understanding is that there were basically no beds in DC last night

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's easy to take these out of context. It is not unusual for hospitals to be on yellow or red alert during flu season.

I don't know where to find statistics on how often this happens, just just look the limited number of captures of the CHATS Region V website taken by the web archive:

Monday, December 19, 2016 10:23:45 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20161220032423/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/Default.aspx?hdRegion=5

Wednesday, March 23, 2016 9:13:59 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20160324011529/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/default.aspx?hdregion=5

Tuesday, February 23, 2016 3:18:28 PM
https://web.archive.org/web/20160223201925/https://www.miemssalert.com/chats/Default.aspx?hdRegion=5


I didn't cherry-pick these dates. These are simply the days the Web Archive had during past flu seasons. Now, obviously the this year this is happening due to COVID, and not the flu, but the broader point here is that hospitals are accustomed to operating at these levels- they divert patients when they can, and there usually is some wiggle room in accommodating additional patients if absolutely necessary. The question is whether the region's hospitals as a whole are overloaded. And when you look at Region 5 combined with Region 3 (Baltimore), it's doesn't look great.

Fair enough. None of these times have the county at blue alert though. And Thanks for the top on using the web archive because I would like to dig more into past data on this.

I agree with your overall conclusion, I need to look at the local data more closely too

It's even a bit iffy to look just at Montgomery County. Despite being a big county, there really aren't any major hospitals. There's a couple big hospitals- Holy Cross and Shady Grove- but the only "trauma center" in the county is Suburban, which is actually quite small. Montgomery County has always been reliant on the hospitals in DC and Baltimore, which is why I looked at Region 3.

I was very surprised to see Johns Hopkins Hospital on yellow/red alert. That's a very large hospital. (Though, I know they have a reputation in the region for not wanting to take transfers, so I wonder how full they really are.)

Remember, "full" has to do with nurse staffing, not physical beds. Of course, staffing is more important than beds. But this number is fluid by shift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A number of the hospitals in the DMV were completely full last evening.

I work for an insurance company and we were reviewing our overnight admissions and we had patients who were taken by ambulance way out of DC for care overnight.

My understanding is that there were basically no beds in DC last night

That's less likely due to availabilty and more likely to steer them away from DC in the middle of riots and curfews.

[Anonymous]

Another post linking to the same mediocre blog quoting statistics with no context

[Anonymous]

I have been monitoring the numbers specific to Fairfax and the death and hospitalization rates have been remarkably low and steady despite huge fluctuations in case numbers.