Leaders of Texas Medical Center hospitals Thursday morning expressed confidence in the system’s ability to handle a surge in intensive care demand driven by COVID-19 patients.
The message, delivered at a virtual news conference, was a change in tone from a letter the executives published 18 hours earlier, warning an alarming increase in hospitalizations could soon overwhelm the system.
“I think the Texas Medical Center’s purpose was to really urge people to do the right things in the community, and do so by talking about capacity, but really ended up unintentionally sounding an alarm bell too loudly,” said Houston Methodist CEO Dr. Marc Boom. “We clearly do have capacity.”
The four leaders, including Dr. Mark Wallace from Texas Children’s Hospital, Dr. David Callender from Memorial Hermann and Dr. Doug Lawson from St. Luke’s, said the system was not in imminent danger of exhausting bed capacity for COVID or non-COVID patients. They said each institution had flexible surge plans, such as shifting adult patients to Texas Children’s, a move announced earlier this week.
“We are used to making adjustments on the fly, and that’s what we’re currently doing,” Callender said.
After the news conference concluded, the TMC system reported 100 percent of its ICU base capacity was full for the first time since the pandemic arrived in Texas in March.
The system’s internal modeling also predicts surge capacity — extra beds, equipment and staff that could be pressed into service if needed — could be exceeded as soon as July 6 if the steep rate of new COVID hospitalizations continues. TMC hospitals have 373 long-term surge ICU beds available and 504 for short-term use.
The 25-county region surrounding Houston set a new COVID hospitalization record Wednesday with 2,251 patients. That figure has tripled since Memorial Day.
Texas reported more than 5,000 new cases Tuesday and nearly 6,000 Wednesday. The number of infections across the state steadily has risen since the end of May. Harris County added 1,365 cases on Wednesday, along with 14 deaths.
Shortly before the news conference began, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order suspending elective procedures in several major Texas counties, including Harris, in an effort to make more beds available. The executives did not answer submitted questions about the executive order during the news conference.
In a statement afterward, however, TMC officials said they respected the governor’s decision and hoped the suspension would be brief.
Dr. James McDeavitt, a senior vice president at the Baylor College of Medicine, said Wednesday that elective procedures are, perhaps, best described as non-emergency surgeries, since they often are for serious ailments. He said hospitals sometimes delayed necessary care when the governor suspended these surgeries in March and April.
“We’ve also seen people not seeking cardiac care and cardiac procedures,” McDeavitt said. “There are health consequences of not doing those procedures.”
zach.despart@chron.com
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Texas Medical Center leaders change tone, say COVID surge manageable - Houston Chronicle
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