ORLANDO, Fla.—Nurse Darlene Andrews stood before a small crew responsible for stopping the latest pandemic surge from overrunning seven of AdventHealth’s Orlando-area hospitals.
She quickly listed occupancy at each hospital. Six were beyond full capacity, with one at 123% for adults. Nearby wall-mounted screens streaming hospital data showed more than 90 patients—some with Covid-19, some seeking other care—needed beds. One had been waiting more than two days.
A hospital in Altamonte Springs, Fla., and another east of downtown Orlando were the current hot spots, nurse Andrew Stakelum told the group, a team that oversees work that has become critical for U.S. hospitals during each pandemic surge: finding an open bed for severely ill patients. Delays leave patients unstable from Covid-19 or other ailments in dangerous limbo.
Prior surges have helped the team and other staff of AdventHealth’s mission control, which monitors hospital capacity and coordinates transfers, prepare for the latest wave of patients, executives involved in the response said.
The flagship hospital, north of downtown Orlando, took all Covid-19 patients in the spring 2020 surge. That wasn’t possible in the larger surge that followed in July 2020, when mission control staff triaged and moved patients across all seven hospitals.
