MIAMI (WSVN) - Many South Florida hospitals are struggling under the weight of new COVID-19 cases, with a spike in hospitalizations over the past three days adding to healthcare officials’ concerns.
The Sunshine State reached a deadly new milestone Wednesday as the Florida Department of Health reported over 300,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with a third of cases found in either Miami-Dade or Broward County.
Speaking with 7News on Tuesday, Dr. Stanley Marks, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Memorial Healthcare System, said the magnitude of this pandemic is staggering.
“This disease is every bit as bad as any disease that I have come in contact with my entire career,” he said. “We have a lot of patients in the hospital right now at Memorial, and I think the public should take it very seriously.”
“With a lot of stress and a lot of hard work, we can manage these beds and COVID patients, but we can’t do this forever,” said Jackson Health System President and CEO Carlos Migoya.
Migoya said 150 Jackson Health employees are out with the virus.
Despite the new and rising new numbers, Migoya said they’re not planning to open an overflow hospital in Miami Beach just yet.
“If we open a temporary site, we’re gonna take some of the nurses that would probably be better off in the hospitals than necessarily the temporary site,” he said. “Our need right now is not beds, it’s staff.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is working to make sure those needs are met.
DeSantis said, “A lot of those hospital systems have capacity to do a lot more if they need to in terms of having bed space. A lot of it is just personnel, so we’ve already done 150 to one of the systems, and we’re having more go down there.”
Miami-Dade and Broward counties have both seen sudden spikes in hospitalizations over the past 72 hours.
In Miami Dade, 1,835 COVID-19 patients were reported Wednesday compared to 1,675 on Sunday.
In Broward, there are 1,214 patients, up from 923 on Sunday.
“Our people, our healthcare workers have been at this now, we’re on their fifth month, and they’re tired, they’re stressed,” said Migoya.
“This is a public health crisis, therefore, we need to handle it from that perspective,” said cardiologist Dr. Bernard Ashby.
Regarding intensive care beds at Broward hospitals, Florida Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale and University Hospital in Tamarac are reporting zero capacity on Tuesday.
By contrast, the hospitals with the most space are Memorial Regional in Hollywood with just 12.5% of ICU beds available, Cleveland Clinic with 14.58% availability and Memorial Pembroke with 31.58%.
Several Miami-Dade hospitals are currently at zero capacity. They are:
- North Shore Medical Center
- Larkin Community Hospital
- Hialeah Hospital
- Homestead Hospital
- Westchester General Hospital
- Coral Gables Hospital
- Kendall Regional Medical Center
- West Kendall Baptist Hospital
As of Tuesday, Palmetto General had the most availability at 40%.
On Wednesday, Mercy Hospital had 34.04% of ICU availability, compared to Mount Sinai Medical Center with 31.31% capacity and University of Miami Hospital at 30.43%.
“It’s more full, sicker patients, and we are just trying to hold our heads above water,” said Dr. Mark Supino at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
“We’re getting to the point where it’s gonna be full, we have gridlock and we won’t be able to take patients in, they’ll just be stacked in the ERs,” said Dr. Nicholas Namias with Jackson Health.
Namias said they’re keeping a close eye on the resources available.
“Strategy meetings to figure out which beds we can turn into covid beds, which beds can we create safe isolation for patients,” he said.
One thing hospitals need, officials said, is donated plasma from those who have survived COVID-19. Doctors said convalescent plasma seems to be helping those still fighting the virus.
“It all seems to be very promising in terms of getting these patients off ventilators, getting them well and then getting them back home,” said Marks. “It absolutely will save lives.”
“Every healthcare worker, none of them want to lose one patient,” said Migoya.
Health officials said 132 people have died from COVID-19 in Florida in the last 24 hours, a one-day record in the state.
Migoya said, “We have a behavioral issue in this community in this point in time where people are not doing what they need to do from a compliance standpoint.”
Tuesday afternoon, Jackson Memorial Hospital officials reported nearly 200 of their employees have tested positive for the virus.
Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said, “Whether or not we reopen schools in a physical manner, or reopen schools to begin with, with sustained continuous remote learning, depends on local health data existing here at that time.”
Healthcare officials said those who have recovered from COVID-19 and are testing negative can donate plasma. For more information, go to OneBlood.org. Doctors said one donation can save up to three people.
Anyone with questions and concerns about the coronavirus can call the Florida Department of Health’s 24-hour hotline at 1-866-779-6121.
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