A growing shortage of beds may end up seeing "tens to hundreds of thousands of excess American deaths each year," researchers said.

US hospitals are on track for a crisis in as little as seven years. This stark warning comes from a group of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) who are concerned about trends in hospital bed occupancy and staffing across the country since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research predicted that 85% of all hospital adult patient beds will be occupied by 2032 and 85% of adult and pediatric beds combined will be occupied by 2035. The greater problem isn't the anticipated higher number of patients but the expectation that staff shortages will continue.

In a nutshell U.S. hospitals are operating at 75% capacity (up from 64% pre-pandemic) not because more people are sick, but because the healthcare system has lost 128,000 staffed beds since 2019, equivalent to closing 160 average-sized hospitals Without significant changes,