SEATTLE — Harbor Medical Center officials on Wednesday told the King County Council that the level one trauma center has a record number of patients that are far exceeding the number of licensed beds, pushing resources to the brink.
The hospital is licensed by the state to have a 413-bed capacity; however, hospital representatives said it has had more than 500 patients at the hospital daily for the last two years.
Recently, the hospital had 495 patients when state officials dropped in. Officials determined that 164 patients did not have to be there.
[DOWNLOAD: Free KIRO 7 News app for alerts as news breaks]
Those patients were called “difficult to discharge patients.” Those patients were medically stable but needed help with the basics like dressing and feeding themselves, requiring a skilled nursing facility or a long-term care bed.
“What happens is, you’re taking Harborview away from its ability to be the disaster control center. You’re taking it away from being ready for being a mass casualty place. You’re taking our ability to handle the car wrecks and the serious injuries because we no longer have any space,” Sommer Kleweno Walley, CEO of Harborview, said.
While Harborview and all hospitals in the region need to prepare for the flu season, it means they’ll have to move out patients who do not need to be at the hospital.
What the hospital will do now when it goes over capacity is divert any patient without urgent or life-threatening injuries to other hospitals.
Hospital officials said the root cause of the issue is a shortage of medical staff at Harborview and skilled nursing facilities in the region, which need more staff.
[SIGN UP: KIRO 7 Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2022 Cox Media Group
