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Postpandemic hospital occupancy is higher than prepandemic and is expected to continue increasing without changes in the hospitalization rate or staffed hospital bed supply, according to a research letter published online Feb. 19 in JAMA Network Open.

Richard K. Leuchter, M.D., from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles, and colleagues repurposed the Covid-19 dashboard to describe several possible US hospital bed occupancy scenarios arising from an aging population over the next decade.

The researchers found that the mean US hospital occupancy was 63.9 percent from 2009 to 2019 compared with 75.3 percent in May 2023 to April 2024, the year following the end of the Covid-19 public health emergency (PHE). There was a decline seen in the number of staffed hospital beds, from a prepandemic steady state of 802,000 to a post-PHE steady state of 674,000; the mean daily census steady state remained at about 510,000. Substantial state-to-state variation was seen in the post-PHE hospital occupancy steady state. With the aging population, total annual hospitalizations were projected to increase from 36,174,000 in 2025 to 40,177,000 in 2035 without changes in the hospitalization rate or staffed hospital bed supply, corresponding to a national hospital occupancy of about 85 percent by 2032 and by 2035 for adult beds and adult and pediatric beds combined, respectively.

“Experts in developed countries have posited that a national hospital occupancy of 85 percent constitutes a hospital bed shortage (a conservative estimate); our findings show that the US could reach this dangerous threshold as soon as 2032, with some states at much higher risk than others,” the authors write.

One author serves on the board of directors of M3 Inc. HealthDay

Korea University Medical Center has partnered with Royal Philips for joint research and development of AI-driven solutions assisting neurological and cardiovascular disorder diagnosis.

The five-year collaboration involves setting up a smart healthcare system, powered by big data and AI, to detect brain and heart disease early and to personalise treatments.

“The combination of our medical science research capabilities and Philips’ global technology network will significantly accelerate the development of [personalised] diagnostic solutions,” commented Park Hong-Seok, professor and head of KUMC’s Medical Intelligence Information Center. Healthcare IT News

After surviving a bankruptcy saga, a Florida hospital will be shut down and demolished by its new owner.

Orlando Health, a Central Florida hospital network, spent millions last year to buy three Florida Space Coast hospitals owned by Steward Health Care System. Steward, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, put all of its hospitals in Florida and elsewhere up for sale to thin debt.

Steward’s five South Florida hospitals were handed over to other operators.

Besides helping Steward make money to pay off debt, the sales were meant to keep hospitals open.

Now, just months later, Orlando Health says it has decided to close Rockledge Hospital in Brevard County and its four outpatient centers by April 22 after determining Rockledge was too costly as a fixer-upper and “does not meet our standards for patient care environments.”

Rockledge made national news for a bat infestation that was eventually resolved during Steward’s bankruptcy process.

“Prior to acquiring Rockledge Hospital, the healthcare system was aware that years of neglect had left the facility in such poor condition that it did not meet the system’s standards for patient care environments. … Following in-depth inspections that could only occur after acquisition, it was determined that the cost to repair and renovate Rockledge Hospital far exceeds the cost of a new, state-of-the-art hospital,” Orlando Health said in a statement.

Orlando Health, which also purchased Steward’s Melbourne Hospital and Sebastian River Hospital, said it agreed to take over Rockledge as part of its deal with Steward “to avoid the facility’s immediate closure during Steward’s bankruptcy.”

The private not-for-profit hospital system said Rockledge is “profitable” and that the closure decision is “necessary to ensure the safety of patients and team members.”

Lance Skelly, system director for public and media relations at Health First, Brevard’s largest healthcare company, told the Florida Today news site that the hospital’s announcement about the shutdown “comes as neither a shock nor surprise, as we — like the community — have long understood the physical challenges present within the facility, making it difficult to provide safe and accessible care to patients. We are examining all options to minimize impacts to our patients and community.”

The 298-bed hospital’s closing — and the void it will leave in the community, where the nearest hospital will be about 10 miles away — is a real-life example of the fear that gripped many in South Florida last year while Steward was trying to find new operators for its hospitals in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Steward’s South Florida hospitals — Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah, Coral Gables Hospital, Hialeah Hospital, North Shore Medical Center in North Miami-Dade and Florida Medical Center in Lauderdale Lakes — are now under the operation of Healthcare Systems of America, known as HSA. The company says it has no plans to close any of the South Florida hospitals.

Doctors and nurses still worry. At Palmetto General, doctors and nurses who grappled with supply issues, delayed paychecks and service cuts under Steward, say things are not improving under HSA.

Recently, several doctors and nurses took their concerns to Hialeah’s elected city leaders to ask for help in improving the situation at the hospital, including fears that the maternity ward could close. Miami Herald

Researchers in China have discovered a new bat coronavirus similar to the one that led to the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, a study said.

According to the South China Morning Post, the new virus is referred to as HKU5-CoV-2 and was unearthed by a team of researchers, led by Shi Zhengli, the virologist popular as the “batwoman” for her extensive research on coronaviruses.

While it carries the risk of animal-to-human transmission, the virus has not been identified in a living person, the study published in the journal Cell stated.

The study was carried out at the Guangzhou Laboratory by researchers belonging to Guangzhou Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University as well as the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Shi is known for her work at the Wuhan Institute which was earlier at the centre of the controversy regarding the origins of Covid-19. The new virus uses the same human receptor as SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus strain that caused Covid-19.

What is HKU5-CoV-2?
HKU5-CoV-2 belongs to the merbecovirus subgenus which also includes a virus which causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

During their study, the researchers found that it can bind to human angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE2), closely associating it with SARS-CoV-2 and NL63.

The team did a lab test to confirm that it is capable of infecting human cells and artificially grown masses of cells or tissue resembling miniaturised organs.

“We report the discovery and isolation of a distinct lineage (lineage 2) of HKU5-CoV, which can utilise not only bat ACE2 but also human ACE2 and various mammalian ACE2 orthologs (– genes found in different species with a common origin),” read the study.

It added that bat merbecoviruses, phylogenetically related to MERS-CoV, post major spillover risk to humans both via direct transmission or facilitated by intermediate hosts.

As of now, its potential to spill over into humans is being ‘investigated’.

Moreover, they have suggested that HKU5-CoV-2 holds better adaptation to human ACE2 compared to lineage 1 HKU5-CoV, as indicated through the structural and functional analyses.

Another pandemic?
The study mentions that the new virus has less binding affinity to human ACE2 compared to SARS-CoV-2. Also, other suboptimal factors for human adaptation have suggested the “risk of emergence in human populations should not be exaggerated”.

Recently, a team of researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle along with Wuhan University said that they couldn’t detect “efficient” human binding in the HKU5 strain. CNBCTV18

There is a need for a liberal visa policy for overseas patients coming to hospitals in India in order to encourage the medical tourism sector, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Joint Managing Director Sangita Reddy said on Friday.

The healthcare major intends to work closely with the government’s ‘Heal in India’ initiative to encourage the inflow of patients into the country, she stated.

“So our idea is to work with the government of India and really evolve this plan called Heal in India. We need enhanced E visas,” Reddy told reporters here.

Some of the neighbouring countries like Thailand, Turkey, Philippines, and Singapore, which get a large number of patients, have visas on arrival, and they have a visa facility for many countries, she added.

“We are requesting the government to enhance the ease of patients coming in, to speed in, and make the medical tourism visas faster, to promote the concept, because India has high-quality healthcare at one-tenth of global prices,” Reddy said.

Elaborating further, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Executive Vice Chairperson Preetha Reddy said that the government is now looking at medical tourism very seriously.

“We need to make the visa process better. We need to make the landing experience better. Now we have fabulous airports in a lot of cities, so that’s kind of done,” she noted.

Asked about future growth plans, she noted that the healthcare provider is collaborating with multiple entities across multiple fields.

“So in the digital space, yes, in the learning space, yes, and definitely in the hospital space, you know, you will see more collaborations and lot of scientific collaborations,” Reddy said.

The company is working with the IITs and other institutions to incubate innovations., she said.

“So I think collaboration now is the only way ahead for healthcare providers, and we’re doing it in multiple formats,” she said.

Reddy noted that Apollo Hospitals has already announced to add around 3,000 beds across its hospital network over the next five years.

The healthcare has announced plans to invest close to Rs 6,000 crore for the expansion. PTI