Delivering the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to a Los Angeles-area hospital, the capacity of the county hospital and ICU was drastically reduced.
According to Dr. Christina Galli, director of LA County Health and Human Services, there were only 370 hospital beds for the 100 million county. With only 56 adult ICU beds left, ICU availability was even worse. This is only the second time that availability has dropped below 100.
On Monday, Orange County set a new record for a new coronavirus diagnosis – 3,250 – and hospitalized, the county’s balanced intensive care unit capacity reached zero. While that capacity was about 11% over the weekend, it has apparently dropped. And the adjusted rate filters out capacity like NICU bed for children. For comparison, Orange County’s daily positive case count was 1,056 as of Nov. 29, so daily amber has risen 200% in just 2 weeks.
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Only 2.7% of its ICU bed capacity was left across Southern California on Monday, according to state statistics.
7,344 new cases were reported Monday in Los Angeles County. Barbara Ferrer, director of public health in LA County, said the number of new cases is artificially low, as there has been a delay in reporting weekly test results from one of the largest processing labs. She says the delay means there will be an unusually large number of new cases on Tuesday. Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 7, there was a 625% increase in cases in Los Angeles County, Ferrer said. And, he added, there has been a further increase in cases in the past week.
4,203 people in the county have been hospitalized with COVID, and about half of the county’s ICU beds are now occupied by COVID patients. Ferrer says 5,000 people in the county are likely to be hospitalized in COVID-19 by the end of 5,000 weeks.
Covid-19 Daily Update:
December 14, 2020
New cases: 7,344 (532,730 to date)
New deaths: 48 (8,345 as of today)
Current hospitalization: 4,203 pic.twitter.com/BEosrV3xcL– LA Public Health (lapublichealth) December 14, 2020
Gali noted that the county is now able to add 13% more ICU beds compared to the summer peak. But, he said, “that durability is not infinite. We cannot maintain the rate of this increase. We will empty ourselves physically. “
He said one way hospitals can accommodate covid spikes is by canceling alternative procedures. “Hospitals have begun to some extent to curb non-essential actions,” he said.
Another method of controlling bed capacity is “diversion”, in which an ambulance is turned over to a hospital – possibly far from art – with more beds. “We are aware that there are several hospitals in the county where load shedding can occur for more than four hours,” Ferrer said. “That’s why we need a diversion system.”
The next step for local hospitals would be to implement a “break ratio” or team-based nursing. The state forces a nurse-to-patient ratio, but the number of nurses per patient can be reduced in emergency situations.
The state has granted two separate amnesty procedures, Galli said. LA County hospitals have not yet broken the ratio. But, Gali said, many local hospitals have already applied and staff need to deploy them for the waiver received.
The patient-to-doctor cutter ratio is “important, and breaking them down leads to sub-optimal results,” Gali warned.
The City News Service contributed to this report.
