Finding hospital beds as demand soars is a complex logistical challenge on a tight clock, say medical and disaster experts. The sickest patients need specialized equipment and staff in a matter of hours or less. “That’s where time counts, where minutes look like hours,” said Tabarak Qureshi, the intensive-care medical director at AdventHealth’s Altamonte Springs hospital.

The race to stay ahead of the flood of patients at AdventHealth’s hospitals is orchestrated in an office tower next to its flagship hospital.

Dozens of screens along the walls stream updates on open beds, patient moves and the queue of waiting patients. Red on the screens alert the staff where hospitals need urgent relief. Exclamation points dot screens where patients who need beds are crowding emergency rooms…

Rising hospitalizations across a region force hospitals to refuse transfers they would normally accept. AdventHealth’s Orlando-area hospitals denied 58 transfers in July for lack of an available bed, less than the pandemic peak of 97 in January. As of this month, the hospitals started to decline and to wait-list transfers from overcrowded hospitals for patients who don’t require specialized services found at AdventHealth, Ms. Porteous said.