U.S. Hospital Capacity Could Reach 'Dangerous Threshold' Within Less Than 10 Years

Mar. 15, 2025

Stock image of a busy hospital.Photo:Getty

Getty

The United States could be facing a shortage ofhospital beds, as occupancy continues to rise among an aging population in the years following theCovid-19 pandemic.

Hospitals are 11% fuller than they were beforeCovid, according to a study published Wednesday, Feb. 19, in theJournal of the American Medical Association(JAMA),which adds that there’s been a reduction in the amount of available beds as well.

A national hospital occupancy of 85% “constitutes a hospital bed shortage (a conservative estimate),” theJAMAstudy reported, adding that “our findings show that the US could reach this dangerous threshold as soon as 2032, with some states at much higher risk than others.”

Stock image of a full hospital waiting room.Getty

Before Covid, hospital beds were approximately 63% occupied; since Covid, they’ve remained in the 75% range.

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TheJAMAreport urged research into the causes of the bed shortage, with a “goal of avoiding substantial excess mortality associated with a national hospital bed shortage.” The authors cited aprevious studywhich found that, especially for older patients, spending “the night in the [emergency department] awaiting hospital admission may have a higher risk of in-hospital mortality and morbidity.”

source: people.com