Several hospitals in the South—in particular, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas—are struggling with oxygen scarcity amid low vaccination rates and the surging Delta variant.
With the continued uptick in COVID-19 cases, there has been more demand on the oxygen supply, and hospitals cannot keep up the pace to meet those needs, Donna Cross, senior director of facilities and construction at Premier—a health care performance improvement company—told CNN.
“Normally, an oxygen tank would be about 90% full, and the suppliers would let them get down to a refill level of 30-40% left in their tank, giving them a three- to five-day cushion of supply,” said Cross. “What’s happening now is that hospitals are running down to about 10-20%, which is a one- to two-day supply on hand, before they’re getting backfilled.”
Even when they’re getting backfill, it’s only a partial supply of about 50%, Cross said. “It is very critical situation.”
Read the full article on CNN.
