Last week, the hospital announced it would be temporarily postponing elective surgeries requiring an overnight stay. That began Monday.
Also on Monday, Danielle Drummond, president and CEO of Lakeland Regional Health, told the Lakeland City Commission that its “experiencing record high volumes across the board.”
There were 395 COVID-19 patients hospitalized at Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center as of Monday morning. This is two to three times more than the hospital’s previous peak of 180 COVID patients in January, according to Drummond, which she called “disappointing.”
“The sheer volume coming to us right now is stretching us,” Drummond said.
Polk County Schools reported Tuesday afternoon that 112 students and 156 faculty members are among the active COVID-19 cases across the school district.
As of 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, there were 16,521 patients hospitalized statewide, according to the state’s hospital association. Fourteen percent of beds are available for all patients, but only 8.2% of beds are available within hospital ICUs.
The number of Florida hospitals expecting a critical staffing shortage in the next seven days: 75.8%, according to the hospital association.
“There can be no question that many Florida hospitals are stretched to their absolute limits,” Mary C. Mayhew, President, and CEO of, Florida Hospital Association said in a statement. “While hospitalizations continue to increase, three out of four Florida hospitals expect to face critical staff shortages in the next seven days, an increase of nearly ten percent since last week, and half of our hospitals will no longer accept transfer patients from other facilities.”