HOUSTON — Texas Children’s Hospital confirmed late Monday it is admitting adult patients to free up hospital beds across Houston as coronavirus cases surge.
In a statement sent to KHOU 11, Texas Children’s Hospital said it is providing additional capacity through ICU and acute care beds across its campuses to both pediatric and adult patients.
Adult patients who have COVID-19 will be cared for in an expanded Special Isolation Unit at Texas Children's Hospital West Campus. The hospital is also admitting adults who do not have COVID-19.
“Since Memorial Day, the number of people in the hospital has tripled," said Dr. Marc Boom, CEO of Methodist Hospital.
Data from the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council show almost 1,488 ICU beds are in-use, out of 1,622 available.
There are 326 extra surge capacity ICU beds available, too.
Only 381 of those people in ICUs are confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients, according to SETRAC.
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“Texas Children's Hospital, our employees, medical staff and leadership team continue to carefully monitor the ongoing active transmission and increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the greater Houston area and across the State. We are committed to doing our part to assist the city as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise,” the statement read.
One Texas Children's doctor tweeted she is "up for the challenge" but also asked the public to wear a mask and stay home.
"I guess its time to retire my giraffe reflex hammer, " Shubhada Hooli, MD, MPH tweeted.
The city of Houston has seen an overwhelming increase in COVID-19 patients in the month of June.
On Monday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the health department is reporting some of the highest numbers the city has had since the start of the pandemic.
"We are moving very fast and we are moving very fast in the wrong direction," said Turner. "The course that we are currently on is not in the best interest of our city or state."
Dr. Marc Boom, CEO and President of Houston Methodist and a member of COVID-19 response in the Texas Medical Center, said Methodist hospitals have seen triple the amount of COVID-19 patients in the month of June.
“That's a pretty dramatic uptick with most of it occurring over the last two weeks or so, so we are concerned about an uptick,” he said. "We can handle some surge. We can handle some increase, and we can do all the things that are necessary to do that, but we are concerned that if we as a community don’t rally together and do all the right things, we may have a more out-of-control situation in a two-,three-, four-week period.”
Boom, Turner and other city officials are encouraging residents to mask up when visiting businesses and when around others who don’t live in your household.