Coronavirus: How Full Are Pierce County Hospitals?

PIERCE COUNTY, WA — Hospitals across Puget Sound are almost at capacity due to the ongoing surge in coronavirus cases in Washington and around the country. State health officials warn that once all hospital beds are occupied, patients may be turned away.

Tuesday, Gov. Jay Inslee held a news conference to extend current pandemic restrictions, and lingered on a sobering statistic: that 80 percent of Washington's ICU beds are currently full, and that future projections showed a worst-case scenario where the state's hospitals run out of space.

Now, a new tool is allowing Washingtonians an up close look at how the influx of patients is affecting their local hospitals. Based on research and data compiled by the University of Minnesota, National Public Radio created a "look-up" tool, showing how full each hospital is, and how many beds are taken up by COVID-19 patients.

Users can also lookup county and statewide hospitalization rates, in addition to info on their local hospital:

• In Pierce County, hospitals are 79 percent full
• In King County, hospitals are 67 percent full
• In Snohomish County, hospitals are 77 percent full
• In Thurston County, hospitals are 71 percent full

It is worth noting that the data used for the tool differs slightly from the state's self-reported data. For example, the latest update to Washington's COVID-19 risk assessment dashboard shows King County hospitals at 80.8 percent full.

Below are local hospital capacity rates and their number of daily COVID-19 patients based on a seven-day average:

Multicare Good Samaritan Hospital (Puyallup, WA) — 88 percent full, treating an average of 51 COVID-19 patients

St Anthony Hospital (Gig Harbor, WA) — 100 percent full, treating an average of 14 COVID-19 patients

St Clare Hospital (Lakewood, WA) — 90 percent full, treating an average of 17 COVID-19 patients

St Joseph Medical Center (Tacoma, WA) — 61 percent full, treating an average of 36 COVID-19 patients

Tacoma General Allenmore Hospital (Tacoma, WA) — 86 percent full, treating an average of 62 COVID-19 patients

Look up more information on the NPR website.

Patch Staffer William Bornhoft contributed to this report.