That total includes open bed space at larger hospitals in Clay, Duval and St. Johns counties, as well as smaller, rural hospitals in Baker, Nassau and Putnam counties.
Available beds at individual area hospitals range from 15 at Putnam Community Medical Center to 228 at UF Health Jacksonville, according to the state figures. Flagler Hospital in St. Johns County is at 23 and Baptist Medical Center-Nassau at 32.
Such "real-time" data, which includes bed availability at the county and hospital levels, including intensive-care units and behavioral-care hospitals, is being used in state and local planning and response to the new coronavirus pandemic. Regularly updated, the dashboard was made public Thursday to provide "greater visibility on hospital capacity and census," according to the agency.
"While the COVID-19 public health crisis is unprecedented, Florida has a strong foundation of emergency preparedness built on government collaboration at all levels," said agency Secretary Mary Mayhew. "As we are ensuring every proactive step is taken to equip and resource our hospitals and health care facilities throughout this public health emergency, this publicly reported data will be a critical statewide resource for anticipating individual hospital needs and monitoring bed availability across Florida.
"Hospital admissions and discharges are a fluid situation and the reporting of bed availability and census will help inform emergency management decisions and coordinated local and statewide response in the event of hospital surge scenarios," she continued. "Our strong partnership with Florida hospitals in times of emergency will allow for well-coordinated solutions and exchange of information necessary to take every measure to safeguard all Floridians."
Doctors at UF Health said their model projects two months of high patient admissions from the coronavirus, peaking in early May and causing two to four times the usual demand for emergency room, ICU and in-patients hospitalization care.
"We expect that we're probably going to be over capacity significantly, and we hope it doesn't exceed what we can stretch to. That's the goal." said David Caro, disaster medical officer. "Now it's kind of the watchful waiting part."
To view the state Agency for Health Care Administration hospital capacity dashboard, go to bit.ly/2UB1YKB.
Beth Reese Cravey: (904) 359-1903
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