The emergency doctor says hundreds of patients are waiting for hospital admissions, but there are no beds

HOUSTON – Southeast Texas emergency physicians say hospital beds run out and some patients wait hours, sometimes days, to be admitted to a hospital.

“Are there patients who die because of this and who might not have died? Absolutely, yes,” said Darrell Pile, CEO of the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Board. they are about to pass “.

On Friday afternoon, Pile said 482 patients were waiting for hospital beds in his 25-county region. He said 211 of these patients are COVID-19 positive.

There are an additional 120 patients waiting for a bed for an ICU. Of these patients, 65 are COVID-19 positive.

“Poor nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists can’t see all the patients riding in the lobby and now we have patients waiting in the car parks and we have patients waiting in the back of ambulances in the car parks. It’s a blockchain at the emergency department level, ”Pile told KPRC 2.

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The SETRAC CEO says the Southeast Texas region has fewer than 2,000 nurses, which he says is the main reason for the shortage of beds.

“It’s a situation where a patient, after hours of waiting, can go into an emergency room with the curtain drawn and be evaluated and decide they have to go in, but there’s nowhere to go, and it’s where they stay for hours and hours and maybe days, ”Pile said.

In some cases, he says patients are being moved out of state to places like Louisiana, Utah, Colorado, North Dakota and Minnesota, instead of going to Texas Medical Center.

“We are used to being where patients want to be. They come here, ”he said.

In Altus Baytown, an independent ER, Dr. Robert Velarde said they are facing something they had never seen before.

“For us, this is the worst increase since COVID was started,” Dr. Velarde at KPRC 2. “It’s hectic. It’s tired. It’s stressful.”

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Due to the lack of hospital beds, if patients need to be admitted to a hospital for more specialized care, he says the delay is overwhelming.

“We are trying to treat the patient who should be in the ICU in the emergency room. They are not getting the supervision or total maintenance they need,” he said.

Dr. Velarde says his emergency room staff have spent hours on the phone looking for hospitals that can accept their patients. In fact, they have even used Google to find hospitals across the country that may have open beds.

“If I want a COVID bed, I have to call 50 to 60 hospitals a day just to find one,” Dr. Velarde said. “They even hired a person here to come call and try to find a bed for the patient.”

Velarde also said this is not only for patients who have COVID, but also for other medical emergencies.

“If they go through something else like a complicated urinary tract infection or a kidney stone that needs a procedure, they won’t be able to get a bed. They can’t get treatment, ”he said.

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Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott called for 2,500 traveling nurses to help overload Texas hospitals.

Although Pile says there is still a need for more, he has helped.

Earlier in the week, nearly 800 patients were waiting for admission to a hospital to get an ICU bed or not.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Pile said.