Oklahoma’s COVID-19 cases reached 154,128, a record number as we enter the much anticipated second wave. The national surge in hospitalizations causes a major concern in ICU hospital beds and physician capacity.

The team of healthcare analysts at QuoteWizard found that Oklahoma has an average of .34 ICU hospital beds and 2.39 certified physicians per 1,000 residents, making it the 22nd least prepared hospital capacity in the nation.

Senior Research Analyst, Adam C. Johnson, analyzed government and Kaiser Family Foundation datato rank each state. You can find the report here: https://quotewizard.com/news/posts/states-prepared-forhospital-capacity Key findings:

Oklahoma’s ICU bed capacity is currently 74.57% full. Nationally, over 70% of ICU beds across the country are currently being used.

Wyoming, Montana, and Hawaii are considered to have the least prepared hospitals.

North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming have some of the largest COVID-19 cases per 1,000 people and are states with unprepared hospitals.

Nationwide, there is an average of 2.96 physicians and .32 ICU beds per 1,000 people.

From 2014 to 2018, 23 states saw decreases in hospital beds per 1,000 people.

One of the primary concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic is the capacity of health care systems to handle the growing number of cases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health organizations refer to this as flattening the curve. “The curve” is the total number of cases in a time period since the first case. If there are too many total cases in a short period of time, it can overwhelm health care capacity to treat people for COVID-19. In many states across the country, the curve never flattened. Many people are referring to the spike in November cases as the second wave, but the curve never flattened. Spikes in Midwest states are troubling because our analysis found many Midwest states are not prepared to handle the influx of COVID-19 patients.

The exponential growth in cases of COVID-19 is putting stress on hospital capacity in states hit hardest with increasing cases. States like Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming are experiencing the largest spikes in new COVID-19 cases and are also among states considered least prepared. QuoteWizard’s analysis of Kaiser Family Foundation hospital capacity data found a correlation between states that are seeing increased hospitalization due to COVID-19 and those that already rated poorly for hospital capacity before the pandemic. States’ already-low capacity combined with the easing of stay-at-home orders is leading these states’ hospitals toward overcapacity. Without a flattening of the curve in states seeing the sharpest increases in COVID-19 cases, there is real concern in the healthcare system