Q: How many hospital beds are available in the Manhattan area?
A: This is a central issue in the coronavirus pandemic, and the practical answer is not entirely clear.
There are 150 beds at Via Christi, 25 at the Wamego city hospital, 45 at the Geary County hospital, and 47 at Irwin Army hospital, according to websites and hospital officials. Add that up and you get 267.
How many of those are actually available at any time is not immediately clear. Local Via Christi officials are not responding to our requests for information. Riley County Health Department Director Julie Gibbs said in an interview that she’s not sure of the number, either. She did say that there are four ventilators at Via Christi.
The pandemic is, in part, a numbers issue.
According to published reports, about 1 percent of the population will catch the virus. The Manhattan region is about 150,000 population, which means you would expect about 1,500 people to have it. Of that total, 10% to 15% will require hospitalization. On the low end, that would mean 150 people.
The whole point of the cancellation of public events is to slow the spread of the virus. That’s because if it all hits in one burst, it would strain the health care system across the country. Careful readers of this newspaper will remember that the local hospital has had capacity problems in recent years due to a lack of staff. This is a problem around the entire region.
Again, exactly what the practical bed space is at this moment is unclear. Local Via Christi head Bob Copple didn’t respond to a text or phone call, although he did indicate to Manhattan Rotary Club members Thursday that the hospital had sufficient capacity to deal with the problem.
You can submit a question to this column by e-mail to Questions, P.O Box 787, Manhattan, KS 66505.
