THE Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) once again reached a 100-percent occupancy rate of its intensive care unit (ICU) beds allotted for Covid-19 patients on Friday, October 16.
Based on the Covid-19 report posted on SPMC's official Facebook page, all of its 30 ICU beds had been fully occupied.
This is the second time SPMC's ICU beds have been exhausted. The first one happened on October 5.
As of October 17, the occupancy rate of the ICU beds has decreased to 93.33 percent.
Based on the October 16 data, its ward beds occupancy rate is at 88.89 percent or 248 of the 279 beds are occupied.
SPMC's peak of occupancy in its ward beds had reached 97.17 percent, or 240 of its 247 beds were occupied on October 9. From October 1 to 17, SPMC's ward occupancy rate hovered around 80 to 97 percent.
According to SPMC and the Department of Health's (DOH's) critical utilization rate, an occupancy level that is between 71 and 100 percent is considered a "danger zone" level. An occupancy rate level between 31 to 70 percent is considered a "warning zone," and under "safe zone" when it is from 1 to 30 percent.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio revealed this as one of the main reasons for the reimposition of the stricter curfew and other regulations in the city.
"There is a need to control the surge kay nag-signal na ang SPMC kay and ilang occupancy is almost full na. (because bed utilization at SPMC is almost full)," Duterte-Carpio said on Monday, October 12.
SPMC officer-in-charge Dr. Ricardo Audan told SunStar Davao in a phone interview on Tuesday, October 6, they are continuing to scout for more beds to cater to the rising number of Covid-19 patients being admitted to the hospital.
Audan said the surge of admitted patients is due to the lack of coordination of hospitals outside the city with SPMC.
Meanwhile, DOH-Davao's overall critical care utilization rate of all designated Covid-19 beds in Davao Region is at "warning zone," as of October 13.
The region's ICU bed occupancy is at 59.26 percent, while its isolation bed is at 44.62 percent.
Ward beds in the entire region are at 72.83 percent.
Rivera said they are already forming a Covid-19 surge capacity plan after the ward beds for Covid-19 patients in Davao Region reached the "danger zone."
SPMC and Davao Regional Medical Center in Tagum City, Davao del Norte are the only designated Covid-19 referral hospitals in the region.
The Davao Medical School Foundation, Davao Doctors Hospital-Dumoy Satellite and the Metro Davao Medical and Research Center are currently being tapped as Davao City's reserved hospitals.
Based on the October 17 data of DOH-Davao, the region has a total of 3,986 confirmed Covid-19 cases, wherein 788 are currently recovering, 3.063 already recovered, while 135 died.