Overview
As cases of COVID-19 rise in Arizona, it’s essential to take a closer look at the current hospital resources that are available in our state. A quick Google search can help you find the nearest hospital. Still, critical metrics like the number of hospital beds, availability of specialized ICU beds and average ventilator use per week are not so easy to find.
Arizona has a total of 15 counties, some like Maricopa and Pima, which boast dense populations with at least 1 million residents. On the other hand, Greenlee is the smallest Arizona county and has a population of less than 10,000. How do resources look across these counties?
Chuyuan “Carter” Wang, an assistant research professor for Arizona State University's Knowledge Exchange for Resilience and the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, weighs in with a mapping tool featuring four distinct layers including hospitals and hospital beds; confirmed COVID-19 cases by county; CDC social vulnerability index; and population by age group.
This interactive map is a powerful tool that increases knowledge of hospital resources available and paints a picture of where Arizona may need to allocate resources.
The first layer, titled Hospitals and Hospital Beds, shows the total number of licensed hospital beds in Arizona (17,889), 5.4% (1,882) of which are specialized ICU beds. A total of 46 hospitals have the potential to increase their bed capacity, with 25 hospitals located in Maricopa County and 11 in Pima County.
The second layer shows Confirmed COVID-19 Cases by County, and this data in comparison to the hospital resources can be alarming in some counties.
The third layer, which shows the CDC Social Vulnerability Index helps people to more easily understand which populations have a heightened vulnerability risk based on census tracts.
The last layer includes Population by Age Group by Census Tract, which shows an overview of the population by age groups in Arizona. Based on the 2018 census data, there are more than 1 million residents age 65 and older in Arizona.
