Bed Occupancy Trending Downward at Some West Michigan Hospitals
The good news, we did better after Thanksgiving then many other parts of the United States. And we’re still waiting to see if we get a Christmas spike, but the best news is hospitalizations are trending down. The state posted occupancy rates for many hospitals across Michigan for the first time in a week. All hospitals that were being tracked went down in occupied beds, except one.
In Muskegon, Mercy Health is still reporting 100 percent bed occupancy, that is an increase from 97 percent on the previous Monday.
The biggest drop in occupied beds was at North Ottawa Hospital, dropping from 37 percent down to 20 percent. Spectrum Zeeland is reporting 41 percent occupancy, down from 52 percent. Holland hospital has dropped to 60 percent, and Bronson South is down to 53 percent. Over in Kent County, decreases were also seen. Spectrum Blodgett dropped to 69 percent, Butterworth down to 71 percent, Metro is under 50%, and St. Mary’s stands at 60 percent. In the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek hospital systems, Ascension Borgess went down to 74 percent, Methodist at 84 percent, and Bronson Battle Creek was at 66 percent. Bronson saw a 25 point drop in the past week. In the Lansing area McLaren Health is at 95 percent occupancy, and Sparrow is also at 95%.
One of the powerful takeaways from these stats is, if we follow the guidance of health experts, we can flatten the curve. We did it in the spring, and we’re doing it again now. The areas that have embraced the Covid-19 guidance are seeing the numbers drop. Less hospital beds filled translates into less deaths. Let’s keep following the guidance from the CDC and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and fight to keep this monster down until we can all be vaccinated.