COVID-19 Pandemic: Hospital Bed Density and Mortality Rates

A topic that is frequently brought up in the COVID-19 discourse is the additional stress that it has added to American hospitals and health care systems. This stress comes from the possibility of limited ventilators, face masks/personal protective equipment, health care professionals, and hospital beds, to name a few. This assessment looks at how the density of hospital beds by population effects mortality rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, these maps show the importance of hospital beds on mortality rates during this pandemic. For preparation for future pandemics, this information can be used to determine if more hospital beds are necessary and where these might be the most helpful. These maps only examine the continental United States and use data from January 22, 2020 (first reported case of COVID-19 in the United States) to May 13, 2020.

COVID-19 Deaths

This map examines the relationship between COVID-19 deaths and hospital bed density for the population of each county in the United States of America. There seems to be clusters of similar data relatively spread out. In the midwest, there is a cluster of high hospital bed density and moderate mortality rates. In the Great Lakes region there is a cluster of areas with low hospital bed denisty and moderate to high mortality rates. Areas in the darkest teal should be considered high priority, with high mortality rates and low hospital bed density. These areas are likely to be experience strain in their health care systems. Click on the map to be redirected to an interactive Observable Notebook.

Percentage of Expected Deaths Observed

This map looks at the relationship between the percentage of expected deaths that have been observed during the COVID-19 pandemic and hospital bed density for each continental state. The percentage of expected deaths that have been observed is found by dividing the observed deaths with the average deaths that were previously observed and multiplying by 100. In the Great Plains region, there is a pattern of high density of hospital beds and low percentages of expected deaths. It can be inferred that these areas are not expericing much stress on their health care systems as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Areas in the darkest teal are not showing any significant patterns but should be treated as high priority areas since they are experiencing high percentages of expected deaths and low hospital bed densities, relative to their populations. Click on the map to be redirected to an interactive Observable Notebook.