ICU beds increased a net 10% during early COVID-19US intensive care unit (ICU) beds increased a net 10% amid the COVID-19 pandemic, from April to July 2020, over 2019 baselines, according to a study today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.The researchers used the National Healthcare Safety Network to look at 3,867 hospitals (67.5% of eligible hospitals) that had data from 2019 and 2020.
Early in the pandemic, 30,279 beds were added to the 84,631 ICU beds available in 2019 (a 35.8% increase), while 21,507 were removed (25.4% of baseline).
This made for a net 10.4% increase; however, beds were added or taken away unequally across different hospitals.For instance, about 61% of large hospitals (221 ICU beds or more) and 16% of small