Peoria Standard

The COVID-19 pandemic has come in waves, with the last one washing over the nation following the December holiday season.

As numbers begin to recede, there remain fears of new outbreaks with new variants starting to take route in communities throughout the nation. That is bad news for a hospital system that has teetered on the edge with beds filled to near capacity with coronavirus patients.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has tracked the pandemic's effect on hospital capacity. Each week, data has shown how close hospitals throughout the nation are coming to reaching their capacities.

Within Peoria County, data from the first week of February includes the share of all adult inpatient beds taken up by patients who have either been confirmed to have the COVID-19 pandemic or suspected. The share of ICU beds is also counted, Patch.com reported.

Of the four Peoria County hospitals, three reported more than 60% of their inpatient beds as filled. Greater Peoria Specialty Hospital has the highest percentage at 71.63%, and Proctor Hospital has the lowest at 44.57%

Only Methodist Medical Center of Illinois and Saint Francis Medical Center reported a percentage of ICU beds with 54.49% and 66.02%, respectively.

State health officials filed a report to the federal government that 64% of inpatients beds and 62% of inpatient beds throughout the state were still filled during the first week of February. Of those, around 8% of the beds are filled with COVID-19 patients.

The numbers presented by the state are of importance for health experts focused on the coronavirus to understand the impact on a hospital's resources. There are a number of stages that have been lined out to make it easy for the layman to understand. If a share is at 10%, it is cause for concern. A share that exceeds 20% places a hospital under extreme duress. A share approaching 50% leaves a hospital in a state of immense stress.