LOS ANGELES (AP) – Overwhelmed by the new coronavirus outbreak, California hospitals are preparing for the worst: The possibility of being forced to deny certain services due to lack of staff and beds.
They hope not to go to that extreme. But the virus is out of control after Thanksgiving family gatherings, with only Arizona beating California in cases per capita in the United States.
The state this week ordered hospitals in hardest-hit neighborhoods to delay many elective operations to make more room for COVID-19 patients.
In Los Angeles County, the Methodist Hospital of Southern California appointed a team that does daily assessments “of the severity of the sickest patients to offer resources to those who need them most,” said Chief Strategy Officer Cliff Daniels.
The hospital is not denying services for now “and we hope we don’t have to,” Daniels said.
However, the hospital portal has the following warning: “If a patient is so serious that it is unlikely that he will survive … certain resources can be assigned to another patient with a better chance of survival.”
Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous, with 10 million residents, is one of nearly two dozen counties in Southern California and the Central Valley that basically no longer have beds for COVID-19 patients in their units. intensive care.
Health authorities warned Wednesday that many people are expected to require hospitalization for at least three weeks after contracting the virus after ignoring social distancing rules at Christmas and the New Year.
Hospitals that still have free beds have been asked to accept patients from other institutions who no longer have space in their ICUs, but most say that all their beds are occupied and that non-COVID-19 patients remain in corridors. , tents and cafeterias.
In northern Santa Clara County, with 2 million residents, about 100 patients arrive at hospitals every day, according to health authorities.
“We have not yet had situations where two patients cannot breathe and only one is on a ventilator,” said Dr. Ahmad Kamal, director of Healthcare System Preparedness. “It’s horrible, but it can happen.”
California posted its second highest one-day death toll on Wednesday, with 459 deaths. In the last week a total of 2,504 people died. There are more than 250,000 new cases weekly and it is foreseeable that the hospitals will continue to overflow.
The vaccination campaign is slow, according to Governor Gavin Newsom, and it will take weeks, if not months, to contain the spread of the virus.
Authorities estimate that 12% of people who are detected COVID-19 will have to be hospitalized.
“These are extraordinary numbers,” said Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association. “We cannot avoid these numbers. We need the help of the state ”.
Coyle said that state authorities should give the order that many patients recovering from the virus be sent to clinics and nursing homes with specialized personnel, despite the fear that this contributes to generating infections. In many counties that is not allowed now.
“In the next few weeks we should be focusing on saving lives,” Coyle said.
In Los Angeles County, where there are more than 200 deaths a day, the rate of new cases of COVID-19 almost doubled from December, according to health authorities.
There are more than 8,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients – a fifth of them in ICUs – and more than a third of adult hospital beds are occupied by coronavirus patients, according to Bárbara Ferrer county public health director .
“This is a crisis of epic proportions,” Ferrer said.
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Thompson reported from Sacramento. Associated Press reporters Bob Jablon (Los Angeles), Elliot Spagat (San Diego) and Olga Rodríguez (San Francisco) contributed to this report.
