Nurse speaks out about concerns of ICU beds and resources

Due to the pandemic, there are hundreds of Minnesotans in the hospital.

More than 250 are in the ICU.

In the metro, the ICU capacity has reached 87%. 

What started as a social media post detailing life inside a Twin Cities hospital, the pandemic continues to gain momentum as a nurse started sharing her concerns she has over the ICU beds.

Her post reads, "Despite reassurance from above, NO, we do not have ICU beds for everyone and even nurses for them, so they are useless. we do not have enough resources." 

"From the reports, we heard there were patients being discharged and transferred to another hospital because there either wasn't the ICU bed with the equipment necessary available, or the staff," Carrie Mortrud, with the Minnesota Nurses Association, said. 

Mortrud says at least four different metro hospitals have recently transferred patients.

"Before we wouldn't have done anything like that, we wouldn't have been moving patients on an evening or night shift in the middle of the night because we were out of space or staff," Mortrud added.

The post goes on to state, "If a COVID patient is a certain age group and has certain comorbidities, they are being ruled out for ICU potential."

"I can image every time a nurse has to make a decision about who gets what type of equipment and leaving somebody else without, it takes a part of them with them," she said.

The hospital system in question says it can meet the needs of patients, stating:

"Hennepin Healthcare has been caring for the highest number of COVID-19 positive patients of any Minnesota hospital and opened an ICU surge area in our hospital as part of our emergency response plan. With this additional capacity and the ability to balance resources across all hospitals through the critical care coordination center we are able to meet the needs of patients with COVID-19 and have appropriate space available to care for trauma patients."