Whelp, there it is. The Texas Medical Center has deleted its helpful charts showing base and surge ICU capacity. No longer part of the daily updates. Comes 3 days after Gov. Abbott ordered hospitals in Houston to stop doing elective surgeries to preserve ICU beds. 
After Abbott issues his order on elective procedures, which could cut deeply into hospitals’ revenue, TMC leaders held a news conference. They hadn’t meant to alarm people when they warned about running out of ICU beds. houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
After that, some Houston hospitals started sending notes to staff, like this one, which was passed to me. Now there was still plenty of ICU surge capacity, so despite the governor’s order, the hospitals were going to keep performing those elective procedures.
The next day, the daily TMC data update never came—a troubling sign for journalists and members of the public who‘ve been following those daily reports. The TMC charts have been some of the best local info on COVID.
The charts returned yesterday, minus the ICU capacity numbers.
The charts returned yesterday, minus the ICU capacity numbers.
There are still some helpful charts on the TMC dashboard. Total COVID hospitalizations (not just ICU) clearly moving in the wrong direction a Houston’s major health systems. tmc.edu/coronavirus-up…
UPDATE: An official from a TMC hospital just sent me this note:
“After the events of this week, everyone realized the capacity question was complicated and misunderstood. So new slides are being made that better explain. That’s all it is.“
“After the events of this week, everyone realized the capacity question was complicated and misunderstood. So new slides are being made that better explain. That’s all it is.“
New alert now showing up on the TMC webpage.
Important context by the @HoustonChron team:
