Though I’m no longer in the hospital setting let me give you some context to keep in mind:

Hospitals say their “beds a full” or they “have no beds” if they have no available beds. They may have beds that are not staffed, or in a closed section.

Hospitals regularly go on “bypass” for ER or Critical Care beds during surges of flu or the summertime festivities of gangbangers. These periodic “no beds” typically last 12 hours or so, but sometimes several days if they’re really slammed or when they can’t move patients through.

How efficiently hospitals move patients through (called “throughput time”) is a measure more of bureaucracy than sick patients. Any of you or your family discharged from being an inpatient? You notice that your doc writes the discharge order at 9a and you’re lucky if they release you by 5pm. For those going back to nursing homes this takes longer.

A real journalist would be monitoring the following:

• How many total critical care/ICU beds are available in the city (or catch basin)?

• How many are fully staffed?

• How many potential beds could be converted to critical care during a surge in volume? (all hospitals plan for this and prepare to flex, not novel)

• How are ambulances and medical transport assisting with moving patients from high flow to lower flow areas?

And finally, a graph showing year over year hospital days of “full beds” — particularly during flu season.

Of course this type of reporting would leave people feeling confident in a well run medical system.