Antonios “Tony” Tsantinis, 68, of East Brookfield died Dec. 10. He had fallen ill just after Thanksgiving and his longtime companion, Angela DiUlio, was sick, too. During a trip to the emergency room, they both tested positive for COVID-19.
They posted on social media Nov. 30, letting people know their business Athens Pizza would be closed, a rare event, due to their positive tests.
Tsantinis was admitted to a hospital in Southbridge after his daughter, Rona Tsantinis-Roy, realized he had become a lot sicker. He needed additional care that the hospital was unable to provide and a search ensued for an available hospital bed.
"They called every hospital within 75 miles," Tsantinis-Roy said, adding that by the time there was a spot for him at a Connecticut hospital, he was too sick to be transferred.
Yet, according to the HHS data, Massachusetts has never been out of available ICU beds.
In fact there are plausible reasons why the staffed beds might drop--chiefly, lack of staff (the Great Resignation has been playing Holy Hell with healthcare).
There's also a question of cost. Hospital beds are expensive, and ICU beds especially so. Hospitals do not want their ICUs to be empty--empty beds are cost without revenue (the bean counters hate that). If the number of empty beds is too great, hospitals will decommission beds and even whole hospital wings/floors as a cost conservation measure. They cover themselves against normal spikes in ICU need by maintaining a level of "surge" capacity, so that an ICU that is "100% full" is not exactly 100% full.
A dramatic reduction in bed count largely can be ascribed to a hospital's ongoing cost control efforts (and this is an essential business function, so it is not necessarily indicative of malign intent).
However, that merely circles back to the same question. If there are not enough staff for the "staffed" beds, why are the hospitals reporting these numbers of staffed beds? And if there are staff, whither the crisis of no beds?
This is the fundamental conundrum that the media refuses to explore: either the HHS data is wrong, or the narrative of hospitals being full is wrong. As it stands, I have not found a means to reconcile the HHS data to the narrative, so I do not see a third option available.
Indeed. I was struck though by the large drop in January 2021, which I can't think of a reason for since the Great Resignation didn't really get going until the vaccine mandates later in 2021. For that I could see the gradual downslope from January 2021 to January 2022 as being partly explained by the Great Resignation/Great Firing but that massive sudden drop in early 2021?
As you rightly noted though, it all circles back to the same question. Why are these numbers being reported if they aren't true? And if the numbers being reported are true, what then explains the stories of hospitals that are full for miles?
Though perhaps both are actually true and not true. Having had to deal with the model of efficiency that is a 21st century hospital system it would not in the least bit surprise me if there were hospital beds available but when Tsantinis-Roy called she was TOLD that there were no free beds because the persons she was speaking to didn't actually have the information on hand, or had outdated information or just couldn't be arsed to really help and so gave the answer that there are no beds. In that case however the media should be all over that because it speaks to inefficiencies and dishonesty in the medical system that people are paying for (either directly and/or through government subventions/taxes/tax-breaks).
Why was there a drop in total staffed beds in January 2021 though? Surely doing a pandemic the opposite thing should be occurring no?
One would think.
In fact there are plausible reasons why the staffed beds might drop--chiefly, lack of staff (the Great Resignation has been playing Holy Hell with healthcare).
There's also a question of cost. Hospital beds are expensive, and ICU beds especially so. Hospitals do not want their ICUs to be empty--empty beds are cost without revenue (the bean counters hate that). If the number of empty beds is too great, hospitals will decommission beds and even whole hospital wings/floors as a cost conservation measure. They cover themselves against normal spikes in ICU need by maintaining a level of "surge" capacity, so that an ICU that is "100% full" is not exactly 100% full.
A dramatic reduction in bed count largely can be ascribed to a hospital's ongoing cost control efforts (and this is an essential business function, so it is not necessarily indicative of malign intent).
However, that merely circles back to the same question. If there are not enough staff for the "staffed" beds, why are the hospitals reporting these numbers of staffed beds? And if there are staff, whither the crisis of no beds?
This is the fundamental conundrum that the media refuses to explore: either the HHS data is wrong, or the narrative of hospitals being full is wrong. As it stands, I have not found a means to reconcile the HHS data to the narrative, so I do not see a third option available.
Indeed. I was struck though by the large drop in January 2021, which I can't think of a reason for since the Great Resignation didn't really get going until the vaccine mandates later in 2021. For that I could see the gradual downslope from January 2021 to January 2022 as being partly explained by the Great Resignation/Great Firing but that massive sudden drop in early 2021?
As you rightly noted though, it all circles back to the same question. Why are these numbers being reported if they aren't true? And if the numbers being reported are true, what then explains the stories of hospitals that are full for miles?
Though perhaps both are actually true and not true. Having had to deal with the model of efficiency that is a 21st century hospital system it would not in the least bit surprise me if there were hospital beds available but when Tsantinis-Roy called she was TOLD that there were no free beds because the persons she was speaking to didn't actually have the information on hand, or had outdated information or just couldn't be arsed to really help and so gave the answer that there are no beds. In that case however the media should be all over that because it speaks to inefficiencies and dishonesty in the medical system that people are paying for (either directly and/or through government subventions/taxes/tax-breaks).