Surviving The Surge: Nonurgent Elective Procedures, Intensive Care, And Mississippi's COVID-19 Waves

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Mississippi in 2020 and 2021, nonurgent elective procedures requiring hospitalization were halted three times to preserve the state's hospital resources. To evaluate the change in hospital intensive care unit (ICU) capacity after the implementation of this policy, we analyzed Mississippi's hospital discharge data. We compared daily mean ICU admissions and census for nonurgent elective procedures between three intervention periods and baseline periods corresponding to Mississippi State Department of Health executive orders. We further evaluated the observed and predicted trends, using interrupted time series analyses. Overall, the executive orders reduced the mean number of ICU admissions for elective procedures from 13.4 patients to 9.8 patients daily (a 26.9 percent decline). This policy also decreased the mean ICU census for nonurgent elective procedures from 68.0 patients to 56.6 patients daily (a 16.8 percent decline). The state managed to free, on average, eleven ICU beds daily. Postponing nonurgent elective procedures in Mississippi was a successful strategy that resulted in a decline in ICU bed use for nonurgent elective surgeries during times of unprecedented stress on the health care system.