The first article that I clicked on said those hospitals are typically pretty full, so that answered that for me.... but, there are so many other variables as well.
https://abc13.com/houston-icu-capaci...pital/6201846/
...if we say they're usually around 100% anyway, then based on that line they're apparently turning away 20% of non-Covid patients right now. That could mean life or death for the worst cases out there, but of course patients being rerouted isn't terribly uncommon.
I don't know what the average ICU stay is for a Covid patient versus an average ICU patient... I could see ramifications from that if it's significantly longer.... then you're turning away that percentage (and possibly greater percentages in the future) of patients for even longer, which could cause issues at other hospitals that are dealing with the same issues.
I doubt they're generally over capacity, or else that would be their actual capacity? Obviously, I don't know for sure, but I assume they've been asked to expand their number of beds, which also puts strains on supplies and people.
That's just off the top of my head as a non-healthcare person posting on a football message board....
None of that seems hair-on-fire to me, but then again, things have changed drastically in a short period of time (2-4 weeks) in other areas, so I could see why people in general and especially people in the healthcare industry would be concerned..... it doesn't necessarily mean they're fear mongering fear porn hysterical about it, but hospitals in particular have to constantly prepare for worst case scenarios on a patient-by-patient basis, and they're now having to do so on a unit-by-unit/building-by-building/county-by-county basis.
And perhaps thanks to the media and people spending hours upon hours entrenched in their opinion, it gets skewed as
WE'RE ALL ****ED!!!.... when those people would just really appreciate it if people wore masks, stayed the hell away from each other at a distance of 6 feet or so, and washed their hands (and of course, there are those who think the world is actually ****ed).