Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an individual hospital with 100 intensive care beds and 75 ventilators may exceed capacity in less than 31 days, according to a new online calculator created by researchers at Stanford (Calif.) University.
The calculator helps healthcare providers identify and predict staffing and supply need based on information about individual hospitals, including patient population and ICU and ventilator capacities.
Once a facility's data is entered, the calculator determines how many staffed ICU beds, acute care beds and ventilators the facility will need to treat COVID-19 patients in the short term, The Wall Street Journal reported.
For example, using the calculator for a hospital with 100 ICU beds, 220 general medicine beds, 75 ventilators, among other data, projects that the hospital will meet ICU capacity in 31 days and ventilator capacity in 31 days if the number of new COVID-19 admissions doubles every 6 days. The calculator assumes the starting date is March 13.
The Systems Utilization Research for Stanford Medicine team also created a regional calculator that projects the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, acute hospitalizations and ICU hospitalizations a county or group of counties can anticipate, according to the Journal. The estimates are based on Census Bureau data, American Hospital Association data, New York Times updates and additional information from the user.
Learn more about the calculators here.