ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida hospitals are using “significant levels of oxygen” to treat an unprecedented number of COVID-19 patients, presenting a supply challenge complicated by a nationwide shortage of delivery drivers.
Hospital officials say their needs are being met, but the sky-high demand for medical oxygen is taxing the system.
One of the issues is a shortage of drivers licensed to transport loads of liquid oxygen, presenting logistical problems for the supply chain, said Alix Miller, president and CEO of the Florida Trucking Association.
“We are seeing a severe driver shortage throughout the industry right now,” she said.
The pandemic set off a wave of early retirements in the trucking industry, Miller said. The federal government has waived rules to allow drivers to be on the road longer, but companies are hesitant to extend hours because of liability concerns, she said.
Florida hospitals are treating 15,358 COVID-19 patients, the most ever during the pandemic, according to the Florida Hospital Association. That’s led to an “unprecedented level of patients in our hospitals that require significant levels of oxygen,” said Savannah Kelly, the group’s spokesperson.
Medical providers have learned that “high flow nasal oxygen,” rather than mechanical ventilation, increases survival rates for COVID-19 patients, Eric Toner, a senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, wrote in a January paper on oxygen supply issues.
But that treatment uses five-to-10 times the amount of oxygen as a mechanical ventilator, putting a strain on oxygen systems in hospitals flooded with COVID patients, Toner wrote.
During a COVID spike in late December in Southern California, oxygen supply issues forced five hospitals to declare an “internal disaster” because pipes couldn’t maintain adequate pressure or were freezing because of the high demand, the Los Angeles Times reported. That meant the hospitals had to turn away all ambulances.
Memorial Healthcare, which has five hospitals in South Florida, is monitoring its oxygen supply as it deals with an influx of pandemic patients, hospital officials said this past week.
“We are able at this point to meet our needs,” Dr. Marc Napp, the hospital system’s chief medical officer, said during an Aug. 4 briefing. “Our vendors are shipping our oxygen as we need it, but it’s something we are keeping a close eye on.”
Memorial Healthcare has an “adequate” supply of oxygen, and hospital leaders are monitoring the situation daily, Yanet Obarrio Sanchez, a hospital spokesperson, said Thursday.
Orlando Health also has an “adequate supply,” hospital spokesperson Kena Lewis said.
AdventHealth, Central Florida’s largest hospital system, did not respond to an inquiry on its oxygen supply.
Airgas, a supplier of medical gases, is monitoring the supply of liquid medical oxygen “very closely” as demand rises, particularly in hard-hit parts of the country, Kim Menard, a company spokesperson, wrote in an email.
“In response to the rising medical oxygen demand associated with COVID-19 treatments, Airgas has mobilized available resources to meet increasing supply needs for hospital and health care facilities,” she wrote.
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