No, empty hospital beds do not indicate COVID-19 is 'fake crisis'

As the death toll from the coronavirus continues to climb, some conservative commentators questioned how busy American hospitals actually are. On Twitter, photos and video clips purporting to show nearly empty hospital parking lots were tagged with #FilmYourHospital. More of the same on a YouTube "citizen reporters" video. 

And on Facebook, there were posts such as this one with dark warnings of a conspiracy:

"Nurses reporting hospitals are empty mostly. Fake crisis for real goverment (sic) planned agendas. Wait for them."

Included were screenshots of other claims that medical professionals are saying their hospitals are empty, or at least slower than usual.

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

We found some hospitals with significant numbers of empty beds. But that’s due largely to hospitals keeping beds empty as they prepare for an expected influx of patients who have COVID-19 disease.

"Canceled elective procedures and admissions are freeing up bed space to prepare for (the) surge," Dr. James Lawler, an infectious diseases expert and internal medicine professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told PolitiFact. "In regions where hospitalization rates from COVID are still relatively low, this is resulting in more empty beds — which is good. The surge is coming to them as well." 

There is plenty of evidence showing how extensive the outbreak is and is expected to continue to be. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, has estimated between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could die from the pathogen even as communities adopt stronger social distancing measures.

And an analysis from ProPublica and the Harvard Global Health Institute found that even in a "moderate case" scenario — where 40% of the adult population contracts the disease over the course of a year — the country would need to more than double available hospital beds by freeing up existing beds or adding new ones.

The report also noted that America lags behind China and Italy, where the epidemic has overwhelmed hospitals, when it comes to hospital bed capacity.

The U.S. has 2.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people, compared with 3.2 in Italy and 4.3 in China. There are also stark regional differences in hospital capacity. Modeling suggests that hospitals in more urban communities will likely be more stressed, but  larger hospital systems may also have more flexibility to stretch their resources if they shift patients around to free up beds.

Within days of the Facebook post, one U.S. Navy hospital ship had arrived in Los Angeles, and another was two days from reaching New York City, both to provide relief from the coronavirus pandemic, with space for 1,000 beds each. 

Again, there are examples of hospitals with empty beds, but the key reason is that they are clearing out space to treat coronavirus patients. A few we found:

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• On the day of the Facebook post, only 70% of the beds at the University of Nebraska Medical Center were occupied, spokesman Taylor Wilson told PolitiFact. "It's only because we've canceled elective procedures to prepare for a surge of coronavirus patients," he said.

• Two days after the Facebook post, the local newspaper in Syracuse, N.Y., about 250 miles northwest of New York City — where the outbreak is worst — reported that Syracuse’s three hospitals had a total of 300 empty beds. That was attributed to cancellations of scheduled non-emergency surgeries and postponements of other hospital admissions, as well as a decline in seasonal flu activity.

• Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston was only about 65% occupied, well below its usual 99%, because it was preparing for a surge of coronavirus patients, WBUR radio reported three days before the post.

• In West Virginia, some hospitals are having cash flow problems and at least one, Charleston Area Medical Center, has cut the hours of some employees because of fewer patients and procedures, a statewide radio network reported.

A Facebook post amid the surging coronavirus outbreak claimed nurses are reporting mostly empty hospitals in the United States and suggested it shows a conspiracy to exaggerate the coronavirus outbreak. 

There are hospitals with significant numbers of empty beds, but that’s because they are canceling non-urgent surgeries and other procedures in an effort to free up bed space for an expected influx of coronavirus patients. The COVID-19 outbreak is real.

We rate the statement False.