Local Jacksonville hospitals have not reached ICU capacity as COVID-19 cases spike in Florida

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As COVID-19 cases begin to rise in the state of Florida, many Florida hospitals are reporting a critical shortage of available intensive care unit beds.

Many Florida hospitals report they reached capacity for ICU beds on Tuesday.

According to the Agency for Healthcare Administration, nearly 85% of the available beds for adult ICU patients were full statewide, but that doesn’t appear to be the case in Jacksonville.

Chad Neilsen, the Director of Accreditation and Infection Prevention at UF Health, told us they are below capacity right now.

"We still have the capacity to shift beds and admit patients for ICU as needed but we tend to hover around 80% or so," Neilsen said.

As a Level I trauma center, UF Health serves a higher-risk population, which means it has more ICU patients.

Only a percentage of these are COVID-19 patients.

He said hospitals farther south are reaching their limit.

“I know that Southwest Florida has been having issues. Miami Jackson, a hospital down in the Miami area, has been having issues with ICU capacity and so where we’re seeing a surge in cases is where we’re going to see a surge in hospitalizations,” Neilsen said.

Both UF Health and Baptist Health reported an increase in patients testing positive for COVID-19, but that the majority of patients haven’t been sick enough to be placed in the intensive care unit.

“For every five COVID patients we admit, maybe one would require an ICU level of care, so that being the case it’s still concerning because when you get 10 or 15 patients in, now you’re talking two or three ICU patients potentially,” Neilsen said.

Baptist Health told Action News Jax it has 134 COVID-19 patients throughout its five campuses, with 24 currently in the ICU.

We also reached out to the Mayo Clinic, Memorial Hospital and Ascension St. Vincent's Riverside.

According to the Agency for Healthcare Administration website, all three hospitals have not reached their capacity for ICU as of noon on Wednesday.

Cox Media Group