Overwhelmed Hawaii Hospitals Begin Triaging Patients

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports:

Intensive care units are overflowing, health care officials are setting up field hospitals and the state is still grappling with a potential shortage of oxygen, which is needed to treat severe cases of COVID-19, as well as patients suffering from conditions such as emphysema and lung cancer.

Some hospitals already have set up tents to help triage patients, and another field hospital is being set up at The Queen’s Medical Center-West Oahu, said Hilton Raethel, president and CEO of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii. The facilities can be converted to provide low-level, inpatient care, but that too requires staffing.

Read the full article.

Hawaii hospitals run out of ICU beds, scramble to bring in extra oxygen | Honolulu Star-Advertiser https://t.co/kTmnRQhHxS

— Nina Wu (@ecotraveler) September 4, 2021

“We are getting close to not being able to provide ICU care for all patients needing it, which means that some patients will not be able to get the optimal level of care to maintain health and potentially life.” https://t.co/qCrki38rzB

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 5, 2021

Hawaii is facing an oxygen shortage and dwindling ICU beds as the state’s hospitals are strained by a surge in Covid cases.

“The most critical point for Hawaii that we’ve experienced during this entire pandemic is right now,” one health official said.https://t.co/1njuYNZ88o

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 2, 2021