It is likely that HOSPITAL usage by COVID patients in South Dakota will become a hot topic in coming days & weeks.
Here are some questions that come to mind. It would be nice if media reps would consider pursuing this line of questioning at a press conf.
🧵 A short thread.
It should be easy to put this one to rest:
The # of "currently hospitalized", per DoH, "MAY include out-of-state cases". Does that mean SOME or ALL non-SD residents receiving care in SD hospitals? Or non-SD residents residing in SD for college? Or SD residents in non-SD hosp?
What are the current denominators used for these various CAPACITY METERS, and how are those numbers determined?
Does capacity value represent real-world, actively available beds or does is include "surge" capacities that would require re-appropriation of ORs, post-op beds, etc?
The term "STAFFED" is inserted in headings for "staffed hospital beds" & "staffed ICU beds".
Are there really sufficient staff to safely use the beds counted? ICU nursing is highly specialized work. Are there really sufficient ICU RNs to work the beds?
How are the #'s derived?
And what is up with these HAvBED reporting facilities numbers?
It is common that fewer than half of the 63 network facilities have reported in the "last 24 hours". So how accurate is the reported # of currently hospitalized? This might not matter much but I'm curious.
No doubt there are other questions floating around out there. Feel free to comment here with your questions and what you know about the issues I've raised.
Also, please tag your local media CoV expert with hope they'll agree these questions are worth asking.
I need help tagging LOCAL, South Dakota media.
@bymorganmatzen
@RCJournal
@NewsCenter1
@keloland
@dakotanews_now
@argusleader
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