Anchorage Emergency Doctor Says Local Hospital out of ICU Beds

I received word this morning from an emergency room doctor that at least one local hospital has no room at the inn for critical care patients and is reportedly out of staffed ICU beds. The source also said that the degregation of ICU staffing affects all hospitals in Anchorage with the exception of JBER, telling me, "Officially, 0 staffed ICU beds in Anchorage overnight. Holding critical care admits in the ERs."

After I mentioned that the dashboard is still reflecting three staffed beds available - the same as yesterday, I was told, "We were out of ICU beds at our hospital and holding 2 ICU patients in the ED. Our house supervisor called the other 2 hospitals to see if we could transfer our ICU holds there and they could not accept because they had no beds available."

Some Anchorage hospitals are reportedly boarding critical care patients in emergency departments, meaning that it's taking longer for patients who need ICU beds and their specialty staffing, to be placed in those beds. Staffing levels have long been a concern for healthcare workers - concerns I wrote about for Anchorage Press in early October.

This morning, data from the Alaska Coronavirus Dashboard shows an increase in the number of hospitalizations since yesterday, with 146 statewide hospitalizations being reported, up from 140 on Tuesday and 139 on Monday.

Hospitalizations within the municipality are reported to be 104 today, up from a low of 89 earlier in the week.

The test positivity in Anchorage has increased from 5.75% earlier in the week to 6.39%.

Alaska reported another 616 cases of coronavirus today across the state, with 265 of those cases within the municipality and 124 cases in the Mat-Su region where there's reported to be 1 ICU bed available.

As Alaska touts its healthcare workers being vaccinated in the state, we might do well to remember that we are not out of the woods just yet.