There are a number of issues associated with delivering oxygen to patients, but usually the problem is not a complete lack of oxygen, said Dr. Christina Galli, director of Los Angeles County Health Services.
Instead, in some area hospitals, aging structures that pump oxygen to patient rooms are unable to accommodate the greater number of patients in need of oxygen oxygen.
“They cannot maintain the pressure in the pipes to maintain the high level of oxygen delivery that is required to be delivered by high-level oxygen delivery vehicles,” Galli said. “Because of the high flow from the pipes, sometimes it freezes in the pipes, and obviously if it freezes, you can’t get a good flow of oxygen.”
Oxygen questions come up as Covid-19 patients in Los Angeles County see a tremendous increase in near-capacity carrying almost every hospital. About 20% of people in intensive care units currently have about 7,000 patients hospitalized.
Also a shortage of oxygen canisters
To address the issue of oxygen supply, some hospitals are moving Covid-19 patients to the lower floors of the medical center, making it easier to pump oxygen through pipes without cooling.
Another challenge, Galli said, is that many supply companies have a shortage of real oxygen oxygen canisters that patients take home once they are discharged from the hospital. Without canisters, patients who would otherwise be able to go home – and free up bed and health care workers – would have to stay in the hospital.
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services has confirmed that many hospitals have fallen into the category of “internal disaster” due to the issue of oxygen, keeping themselves off from incoming EMS traffic. The worst-affected hospitals are in LA County and the eastern areas of San Fernando Valley, the department said.
One aspect of this issue was the amount of oxygen needed to treat severe Covid-19, which mainly affects the lungs.
“First, high levels of oxygen oxygen are required for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, and that level may be 10 times higher than normal consumption,” the department said in a statement. “Hospitals typically run out of oxygen earlier than their normal conditions, and oxygen suppliers are changing their processes to respond to the needs of hospitals.”
At Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles, for example, patients are treated in out-of-hospital tents, conference rooms, and chapels. Guerney is taken to a gift shop. Rationing care could be next, said the hospital’s CEO, Dr. Elaine Bachelor said Monday.
“If we continue to see an increase in the number of Kovid patients, we may be forced to do something that, as health professionals, we are all too proud to even think about.”
At the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, nurses who normally care for one or two patients now care for three or four, said infectious disease specialist Dr. Kimberly Shriner told CNN on Sunday.
“We have a limited number of ventilators, we have a limited number of ICU beds,” Schriner added, adding that a team including bioethists, community members, physicians, nurses and administrative leaders will decide how to allocate those resources. If it comes down.
These issues could be linked to some of the most difficult decisions ahead, said CNN’s medical analyst Dr. Said Jonathan Rainer.
“If you don’t have breathing, you don’t have nurses to take care of patients, you don’t have an ICU bed, we have to have this terrible discussion with families, that’s why people need to stay home, and when they go out, mask them. Need to wear, ”Rainer said.
CNN’s Eric Levens contributed to this report.
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