Mayo Clinic reaches max capacity due to surge of COVID-19 cases

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax obtained an email from Mayo Clinic saying the hospital in Jacksonville has exceeded capacity due to the rise in COVID-19 patients.

The email said the hospital has notified the Agency for Health Care Administration that they have activated their ‘Surge Capacity Plan’ and that they have requested AHCA’s approval to operate overcapacity.

Mayo Clinic is operating overcapacity but said it still has enough staff that the surge areas needs are being met, and “life safety will not be jeopardized for any patients.”

The hospital has 304 licensed beds, according to the email which now patients will be occupying unlicensed beds due to the COVID-19 surge.

Mayo Clinic released the following statement:

“Like all of our neighboring Northeast Florida hospitals, Mayo Clinic in Florida has seen a dramatic increase in COVID-19 positive patients in recent weeks. For this reason, we have activated our hospital surge plan and are making adjustments to inpatient areas to accommodate caring for an increased number of patients, while leveraging innovative solutions like our Advanced Care at Home, our hospital at home program.

Mayo Clinic remains honored to care for our community. Mayo Clinic patients who have scheduled appointments should continue to seek care for their appointments/visits, procedures, and surgeries. At this time, we have not canceled patient care unless it was patient-directed. In specific cases, Mayo Clinic may make modifications to schedules given the circumstances in the community, but these are on a case-by-case basis. We stand together with our Northeast Florida hospitals to serve our community and place the needs of our patients first.”

You can read Mayo Clinic’s full email below:

Good afternoon from Mayo Clinic.

This morning Mayo Clinic hospital exceeded our capacity of 304 licensed beds due to the significant increase in COVID-19 inpatients. We have notified the Agency for Health Care Administration that our Surge Capacity Plan has been activated by our Hospital Incident Commander and have requested AHCA’s approval to operate at overcapacity until the current COVID-19 surge ends. Hospital inpatients will be occupying unlicensed beds detailed in our approved Surge Capacity Plan and we are currently able to staff the surge areas to meet the essential needs of our patients. Life safety will not be jeopardized for any patients.

Thank you for your continued leadership as we work together on this latest surge. Please do not hesitate to call if I can provide any additional information.

Layne

Layne Smith is the Director of State Government Relations, Division of External Relations.

Action News Jax, Ben Ryan, is working to learn more from Mayo Clinic. We will keep this story updated with new information as it becomes available.

©2021 Cox Media Group