Baguio hospital care utilization rate drops to moderate risk
The city’s hospital care utilization rate dropped to moderate risk following the decline in the number of CoronaVirus Disease (COVID) 2019 cases being recorded over the past several weeks.
City Health officer Dr. Rowena Galpo disclosed that the city’s overall health care utilization rate is now 63.73 percent which falls under moderate risk compared to the previous critical and high-risk utilization rates since the surge in COVID-19 cases in the previous months.
The Pines City Doctors Hospital, which as a 110-bed capacity, and the Saint Louis University (SLU) Hospital of the Sacred Heart, which has a 120-bed capacity, are still fully occupied at the moment while the Notre Dame de Chartres hospital, which has a 125-bed capacity, is around 68 percent occupied.
Further, the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMNC), which has a 600-bed capacity, is around 59.91 percent occupied and the Baguio Medical Center (BMC) with a 24-bed capacity, is around 25 percent occupied as of to date.
She claimed that in terms of available isolation beds, the occupancy of the isolation beds of the different private and public health facilities is around 73.15 percent; available wards are 43.46 percent occupied; intensive care unit (ICU) beds are 77.94 percent occupied; and mechanical ventilators are 53.7 percent.
On the other hand, the city health officer reported the bed occupancy of the various isolation units in the city also dropped to only 23.7 percent.
The Baguio Teachers Camp Roxas hall had the highest bed occupancy at 25.9 percent followed by the Baguio City Community Isolation Unit based at the former Sto. Nino hospital at 24.3 percent, the Baguio Teachers Camp Magsaysay Hall quarantine facility and the Ferioni Apartment have a similar occupancy rate of 20 percent each, Laurel Dormitory which is an isolation facility for health care workers registered a 16.8 percent occupancy while the central triage quarantine facility remains unoccupied.
The city government already gave up the use of the Baguio Teachers Camp Hernandez Hall as an isolation facility and was replaced with the use of the staff house, Quirino and Romulo halls to cater to the needs of the COVID-19 patients who are required to undergo isolation during the recent surge in cases triggered by the more infectious Delta variant.
Moreover, the Baguio Teachers Camp management had assured the availability of the Escoda Hall in case the existing isolation facilities had been filled up during the surge in cases over the past several months but the same remains unused following the recent decline in cases over the past several weeks that helped in decongesting the hospitals and isolation centers.
The Baguio City Community Isolation Unit has a total bed capacity of 350 followed by the Baguio Teachers Camp Roxas, Romulo and Magsaysay halls have a combined bed capacity of 427, Laurel dorm – 101 beds, central triage quarantine facility – 12 and Ferioni apartment – 30 beds.
Also closed for operation is the Eurotel which had been acquired through the Oplan Kalinga under the Office of Civil Defense (OCD). — Dexter A. See
