FORT WORTH, Texas — Texas Health Resources has thousands of hospital beds, serves more patients than any health system in North Texas and they’re running out of room.
“We're at a critical point in our communities,” Barclay Berdan, Texas Health’s CEO said. “I don't know when that is going to subside if everybody in the community doesn't play a part in it.”
At the current rate, he expects Texas Health will have no more ICU beds available in North Texas in one week.
"Our analytics would indicate that we will, essentially, at the current growth rate, likely be out of ICU beds in about a week," Berdan said.
That includes for non-COVID emergencies.
“The point that we're trying to avoid is where we have to begin to make decisions about care, and, you know, we don't want to be there,” Berdan said.
Stopping doesn’t require everyone to buy in, but it does require an extra effort.
A UT Southwestern model shows preventative measures like masks, lockdowns and distancing are 57% effective. If they were just 11% better at 68%, the curve would not only flatten but point significantly downward.
“It's not that big a deal for things that can be saved and for the to respect those heroes that have been providing care in our hospitals,” Berdan said.
Healthcare workers across the area have stayed in hotels to keep their families safe, and Berdan said one Texas Health nurse sent her kids away to other family for months, unable to see them, to protect them.
“There are endless stories about the kinds of things that people have done to try and keep themselves safe while they're keeping our patients and our community safe,” Berdan said.
As of Tuesday, there were 2,355 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across North Texas. That’s a record high.
“We're not telling stories about the numbers,” Berdan said. “We have many very sick people in the beds in our hospitals, and to say anything different is basically a break from reality.”
The trend not only means the region is running out of beds, but it’ll soon trigger automatic shutdowns for bars and rollbacks for retail, gyms and restaurants. If the 19-county North Texas trauma region has COVID patients make up more than 15% of total hospital capacity for seven days in a row, the rollback takes effect.
The DFW Hospital Council says that’s happened the past two days. However, DSHS has not reported the region hitting the 15% mark yet because its data is delayed and also includes psychiatric facility beds as part of total capacity.
A little bit more empathy and effort can save both jobs and lives.
“I'm worried about it. It's a safety problem,” Berdan said. “That's why we are spending a good amount of time and resources trying to talk directly to the public and ask them for their help.”
