New Data Shows Rapid Rise In Coronavirus Cases At Lowell General

LOWELL, MA — Recently updated data released by the federal government shows how rapidly Lowell General Hospital has filled with coronavirus patients over the last month's surge in the area.

As Patch previously reported, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last week published capacity data for tens of thousands of hospitals nationwide. The new data painted a clearer picture of how many beds are available at each hospital. The new, more granular data aggregates daily hospital reports into a "week at a time" picture.

The new data shows that Massachusetts hospitals still have space to add more patients — but caseloads are growing fast.

And Lowell General is carrying more of that burden than any other Middlesex County hospital, with more than one in five beds filled with coronavirus patients, as of the week of Dec. 4 to 10. Almost 90 percent of the hospital's beds are filled.

Fortunately, the hospital is in the process of setting up a field hospital at UMass Lowell, as it did during the first wave in the spring.

"Overall we are tight on capacity, and recently shut down some elective procedures to free up staff to treat COVID patients," hospital spokesman Will Courtney said. "The field hospital should be up and ready to go by next week and hopefully we don’t need it, but who can predict anything in 2020."

According to the federal data, Lowell General has added coronavirus patients while losing beds over the last month. The week of Nov. 6, the hospital had 245 total adult inpatient beds, and that number dropped to 198 in the latest week reported. Its coronavirus patient population rose from a daily average of 18.4 to 42.6.

Over that period, the proportion of adult inpatient beds used by coronavirus patients nearly tripled from 7.5 percent to 21.5 percent.

Health experts have said the share of coronavirus hospitalizations out of the total beds is key to understanding how hospitals are strained. If that percentage eclipses 10 percent, it's cause for concern, they said. Hospitals are considered to be under extreme stress when the share of coronavirus hospitalizations to total beds tops 20 percent, and immense stress as the number approaches 50 percent.

Here are the capacity numbers for Lowell General Hospital, according to federal Health and Human Services data, compared to the Nov. 6 to 12 data.

Lowell General Hospital

• Total Beds (7-day average): 296.4 (down from 343)
• All Adult Hospital Beds (7-day avg): 248.4 (down from 295)
• All Adult Hospital Inpatient Beds (7-day average): 198.4 (down from 245)
• Inpatient Beds Used (7-day average): 190.4 (up from 181.1)
• All Adult Hospital Inpatient Bed Occupied (7-day average): 173.1 (up from 167.7)
• Percent of inpatient beds used (Overall): 87.3 percent (up from 68.5 percent)
• Total Adult Patients Hospitalized Confirmed And Suspected COVID-19 (7-day average): 42.9 (up from 19.3)
• Total Adult Patients Hospitalized Confirmed COVID-19 (7-day average): 42.6 (up from 18.4)
• Percent of Adult Inpatient Beds Used By Confirmed COVID-19 Patients: 21.7 percent (up from 7.5 percent)
• Inpatient Beds (7-day average): 246
• Total ICU Beds (7-day average): 23
• Total Staffed Adult ICU Beds (7-day average): 23
• ICU Beds Used (7-day average): 20.1
• Staffed Adult ICU Bed Occupancy (7-day average): 20.1
• Staffed ICU Adult Patients Confirmed And Suspected COVID-19 (7-day average): 10.6 (up from 4.6)
• Staffed ICU Adult Patients Confirmed COVID-19 (7-day average): 10.6 (up from 4.6)

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.