Fourteen out of the 32 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) referral hospitals in the country are now under the "critical" classification in terms of their healthcare utilization rate (HCUR) amid the rapid rise in cases, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
The DOH classifies a healthcare facility under critical classification if their HCUR is above 85 percent.
As of Sept. 5, the facilities that were currently under the critical risk include Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (100 percent), Amai Pakpak Medical Center (100 percent), Southern Philippines Medical Center (99 percent), Region 1 Medical Center (99 percent), National Kidney and Transplant Institute (96 percent), Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (96 percent), Lung Center of the Philippines (96 percent), UP-Philippine General Hospital (95 percent), and Quirino Memorial Medical Center (95 percent).
Medical facilities that have critical HCUR also include Batangas Medical Center (92 percent), Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital (91 percent), Dr. Paulino J. Garcia Memorial Research and Medical Center (91 percent), Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital (89 percent), and Cagayan Valley Medical Center (86 percent).
Meanwhile, the HCUR of five hospitals were under "high-risk" classification. This means that their occupancy rates range between 70 percent to 85 percent.
These include Western Visayas Medical Center (77 percent), Northern Mindanao Medical Center (75 percent), Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (76 percent), San Lazaro Hospital (71 percent), and Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center (70 percent).
The DOH noted that the 32 COVID-19 referral centers have a total bed capacity of 6,808 dedicated for COVID-19 patients. It noted that 80 percent or 5,435 of the overall bed capacity are currently in use.
Meanwhile, out of the 1,815 ICU beds, a total of 1,440 or 79 percent are occupied.