FOR the first time in months, Baguio City’s healthcare utilization rate (HCUR) or overall occupancy and usage of hospitals and other healthcare facilities has dropped enough to be classified as low risk.
According to City Health Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo, the city’s current healthcare utilization rate has dropped below 60 percent, low enough to be tagged as low risk under Department of Health standards.
Currently, the city’s HCUR is 59.2 percent, seeing a steady drop from previous weeks’ moderate risk above 60 percent HCUR. The decrease is attributed to the city’s steady decline in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.
While Saint Louis University Hospital of the Sacred Heart and Pines City Doctors Hospital both continue to have full or above full utilization rate and occupancy, the average has been brought down by the other healthcare facilities in the city.
Notre Dame de Chartres Hospital’s 125 beds saw a 68 percent utilization rate, Baguio General Hospital, and Medical Center (BGHMC)’s 600 beds saw a 56 percent utilization rate, while the 24-bed Baguio Medical Center (BMC) is currently unoccupied.
Meanwhile, bed occupancy in the city’s various isolation facilities has also gone down significantly, with only 16.3 percent of the city’s beds for isolating COVID-19 cases currently being occupied.
Additionally, Galpo said that the city’s supply of oxygen for COVID-19 patients has stabilized as declining COVID-19 incidence caused demand for oxygen to decrease accordingly.
