Shortage of ICU Beds Did Not Drive COVID-19 Deaths

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Contrary to popular belief, no association appeared between the number of intensive care unit beds and COVID-19 deaths, based on a review of data from all 50 states between March 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021.

One of the reasons for poor patient outcomes in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic was the presumed scarcity of ICU beds, say Omar Haider, MD, of Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas, and colleagues. "We hypothesized that the states having a lower number of ICU beds had more COVID-related deaths when compared to the states that had a higher number of ICU beds," they write in an abstract presented at the 2022 Critical Care Congress.

According to the researchers, the total number of ICU beds in the United States is approximately 85,000. Hawaii has the highest number of beds per 10,000 persons, and the District of Columbia has the lowest (6.0 vs. 1.6).

The researchers collected data on ICU bed totals from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Statistics on COVID-19 deaths were obtained from The New York Times database, which provided real-time information collected from the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Census Bureau.

The researchers used the Pearson Correlation Coefficient to compare ICU beds and COVID deaths per 10,000 persons in each state. The R value was 0.29, which indicates no inverse correlation, they said. "Our value of R2, the coefficient of determination, was 0.0858," they added. They confirmed the results using the Spearman's Rho (rs), which yielded an rs of 0.3, also a sign of no inverse correlation. No correlation was found between low numbers of ICU beds and high numbers of COVID-19 deaths for any states.

The study findings were limited by several factors, including the lack of standardized reporting timelines across states, differences in state-based vaccination rates, the emergence of the Delta variant during the study period, and time-lag in contemporaneous database updates, the researchers noted.

However, the results suggest that physical ICU beds do not play a role in determining the number of COVID-related deaths. Instead, "other constraints such as less staffing, lack of medical supplies (ventilators and PPE) should be evaluated for potential implications on poor patients' outcomes," they concluded.

Pandemic Challenges Can Inform Future Plans

"As the healthcare system emerges from the effects of the pandemic, it is important to understand the factors that contributed to adverse outcomes to better prepare for future challenges and improve the delivery of care," Suman Pal, MBBS, of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, said in an interview.

"The findings are not surprising considering what is known about the multitude of factors that determine outcomes for our patients from medical comorbidities, and social determinants of health to upstream structural factors such as systemic inequities and generational trauma," said Pal, who was not involved with the study. "Thus, a simple correlation of the number of ICU beds to COVID-19 outcomes is not likely to capture the interplay of all these factors."

The challenges of the pandemic offer insights to inform future planning, said Pal.

"In my opinion, a key factor to understand and address would be employee wellness for healthcare workers," he said. "The problem of burnout leading to healthcare workers leaving the workforce has exacerbated the already acute shortages in personnel in recent years.

"In the long term, it may be prudent to reconsider the approach to health by increasing support for preventative and primary care, addressing social factors such as education, nutrition, and housing, to mitigate preventable aspects of diseases."

Further research is needed to examine the multitude of factors associated with the pandemic, and their interplay, said Pal. The goals of such research "would be needed to develop a deeper understanding of the factors that contributed to mortality in COVID-19 and the disparities with this across different subpopulations," he said.

The study received no outside funding. The researchers and Pal have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Critical Care Med. January 2022 edition. Abstract

Society of Critical Care Medicine 2022 Critical Care Congress: Star Research Presentation. Presented April 19, 2022.

Heidi Splete is a freelance medical journalist with 20 years of experience.

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