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FHA Survey: 68 Florida Hospitals Have Less Than 48 Hours Worth Of Oxygen

The Florida Hospital Association says 68 hospitals in Florida have less than 48 hours worth of oxygen.
The Florida Hospital Association says 68 hospitals in Florida have less than 48 hours worth of oxygen.

Hospitals are using three to four times as much oxygen as they were before the pandemic. Also, a lack of delivery drivers is adding to the problem.

The Florida Hospital Association is sounding the alarm, saying a survey shows 68 hospitals have less than a 48-hour supply of oxygen.

Hospitals are using three to four times as much oxygen as they were before the pandemic because more than 17,000 patients are hospitalized statewide with COVID-19.

The FHA survey, which was done Wednesday, shows 68 hospitals have less than 48 hours worth of supply, with about half of these have less than 36 hours.

The association represents more than 200 member hospitals.

“This is not like running out of masks, right? This is life saving,” said Florida Hospital Association CEO and president Mary Mayhew. “And right now, we’re focused on how to make sure that does not happen. And so hospitals have been raising these concerns with the state, with the Division of Emergency Management, with the governor’s office, and have raised these concerns federally.”

Mayhew says part of the problem is a lack of delivery drivers. But she is also worried that there is an oxygen supply problem.

Since July 1, 29 hospitals have seen their oxygen supply dip below 12 hours.

“They’re making frantic calls, trying to find where their driver is because they were supposed to get a delivery and now it’s 10 hours, 12 hours overdue,” Mayhew said.

Calls and emails to the governor’s office, the Agency for Health Care Administration and Division of Emergency Management were not immediately returned.

Health News Florida reporter Abe Aboraya works for WMFE in Orlando. He started writing for newspapers in high school. After graduating from the University of Central Florida in 2007, he spent a year traveling and working as a freelance reporter for the Seattle Times and the Seattle Weekly, and working for local news websites in the San Francisco Bay area. Most recently Abe worked as a reporter for the Orlando Business Journal. He comes from a family of health care workers.
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