CLEVELAND, Ohio — Previously scheduled nonessential surgeries requiring a hospital bed at the Cleveland Clinic are being postponed until later in the month, the Clinic said in a statement Tuesday.
The change is meant to free bed space as the Clinic, along with other Ohio hospitals, is reaching nearly full capacity due to a pandemic-related surge in patients.
The Clinic will postpone surgeries from Wednesday through Dec. 17. The move affects all Clinic hospitals in Ohio, with the exception of Lutheran Hospital.
“These nonessential cases can be safely rescheduled for a later date,” the Clinic said.
Previously, The Clinic said it would temporarily halt the scheduling of additional nonurgent inpatient surgeries requiring a hospital bed in its Ohio locations.
MetroHealth Systems and University Hospitals last week said they were postponing elective surgeries as well.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in northern Ohio began to rise during the second week in November, and spiked later that month.
In early December, nearly 80% of Ohio’s inpatient beds were occupied. Ohio hospitals collectively had only about 750 open ICU beds out of about 3,800, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker. More than half of ICU beds were taken up by non-COVID-19 patients.
Ohio has seen about 1.7 million total reported cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and about 88,000 total hospitalizations, according to state statistics. Total reported ICU admissions stood at 10,904.
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