Jacksonville hospitals brace for more coronavirus patients

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As of 4 p.m. Monday, the Agency for Health Care Administration reported 522 coronavirus patients currently hospitalized in Duval County hospitals.

For Jacksonville hospitals, 78% of ICU beds are full, which includes patients with coronavirus and other illnesses.

The Director of Accreditation and Infection Prevention for UF Health, Chad Neilsen, said they expected this increase after the 4th of July weekend.

“Right now our current ICU capacity, which changes, by the way, quite a bit, our current capacity is about 95% across both of our campuses, UF Health Downtown as well as UF Health North,” Neilsen said.

As of 9 a.m., UF Health reported 108 COVID-19 hospitalizations across their two local campuses. Baptist Medical Center reported 138 COVID-19 hospitalizations across all local facilities, 29 of which are in the ICU.

With the Republic National Convention and the start of a new school year beginning in about a month, doctors are concerned about another surge in cases. For the past several weeks, some hospitals have prepared their facilities to be ready for more patients in August.

“We have a specific committee set up to be able to handle this kind of surge of cases from the RNC or schools restarting,” Neilsen said. “What that committee looks at is everything from staffing ratios, do we need to bring more staff on board more nurses, to bed capacity, are we prepared, do we have enough physical beds?”

He said UF Health first evaluates staffing rates and bed availability. The staff has identified what they call “ghost units” to be used for a surge in patients.

“They’re just not used but they’re spaces,” Neilsen said. “So trying to retrofit those to have medical gases, call bells, all of the electronic stuff needed to put a patient in that bed. That’s what we’ve been going through now for several weeks.”

UF Health is also working with the State of Florida to acquire more beds, medical pumps, ventilators, other equipment, and Remdesivir.

Neilsen said they are good on supplies for now, but preparing for more potential patients.

“If the mask mandate continues and other counties in the metro area join in on that, I think we can really get the numbers under control,” Neilsen said.

Cox Media Group