Beaumont Health is caring for 635 patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, putting pressure on the eight-hospital system as it nears capacity for staffing, protective equipment and ventilators, the Royal Oak-based health system said Tuesday.
The health system has been transferring patients between hospitals to find space and is beginning to convert some operating rooms into intensive care units, Beaumont Health Chief Operating Officer Carolyn Wilson said.
Beaumont Health system officials said they currently have enough ventilators to treat seriously ill COVID-19 patients, “but that could change as more people become infected,” according to the health system.
The crush of patients prompted Beaumont Health officials to call on the state Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate the allocation of hospital resources and beds across the region and Michigan.
Beaumont is Michigan’s largest health system with 3,108 beds across its hospitals in Royal Oak, Troy, Dearborn, Farmington Hills, Wayne, Trenton and Taylor and Grosse Pointe, according to 2017 reports compiled by Michigan health care analyst Allan Baumgarten.
As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Beaumont Health had 450 patients confirmed to have COVID-19 and another 185 suspected cases with test results pending.
Michigan Medicine, Beaumont’s closest competitor with 1,000 beds, was treating 24 inpatients with confirmed COVID-19 as of late Tuesday, said Mary Masson, spokeswoman for the University of Michigan health system.
Henry Ford Health System was treating 170 inpatients for coronavirus across its five hospitals as of 9 a.m. Tuesday, the latest count available.
Michigan health officials said confirmed cumulative cases statewide reached almost on 1,800 on Tuesday with 24 deaths.
Sir Tainley