New Data Shows Despite Surge, Falmouth Hospital Has Space

FALMOUTH, MA — Recently updated data released by the federal government shows Falmouth Hospital has space to take on more coronavirus patients.

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.

Falmouth Hospital is in better shape than many of the state's biggest hospitals, with less than 6 percent of its 742 beds occupied coronavirus patients, as of the week of Dec. 4 to 10. About 53 percent of the hospital's beds are occupied in total.

Patch requested comment from Cape Cod Healthcare, which runs Falmouth Hospital, and will update this story when we hear back.

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 Falmouth Hospital, according to federal Health and Human Services data, compared to the Nov. 6 to 12 data.

Falmouth Hospital

• Total Beds (7-day average): 156
• All Adult Hospital Beds (7-day avg): 156
• All Adult Hospital Inpatient Beds (7-day average): 106
• Inpatient Beds Used (7-day average): 56.3
• All Adult Hospital Inpatient Bed Occupied (7-day average): 56.3
• Percent of inpatient beds used (Overall): 53.11 percent (down from 58.77 percent)
• Total Adult Patients Hospitalized Confirmed And Suspected COVID-19 (7-day average): 6 (up from less than 4)
• Percent of Adult Inpatient Beds Used By Confirmed And Suspected COVID-19 Patients: 5.66 percent (up from less than 4 percent)
• Inpatient Beds (7-day average): 436
• Total ICU Beds (7-day average): 105
• Total Staffed Adult ICU Beds (7-day average): 105
• ICU Beds Used (7-day average): 27
• Staffed ICU Adult Patients Confirmed And Suspected COVID-19 (7-day average): 7 (up from less than 4)
• Staffed ICU Adult Patients Confirmed COVID-19 (7-day average): 7