Bay Area Hospitals Helping SoCal COVID-19 Patients
Greg Liggins reports.
SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) – COVID-19 patients from Southern California are now being sent to hospitals in the Bay Area.
With the virus on the rise in the southern part of the state, some medical facilities are at or near capacity, forcing health officials to find additional beds to take them.
Bay Area hospitals have received COVID-19 patients from the south to Imperial County, which shares a border with Mexico.
“Both hospitals are overwhelmed with the number of COVID-19 patients,” said Sergio Cárdenas, who works for Reach Air Medical Services, a state-contracted company that transports patients to the Bay Area.
The health system in Imperial County, just east of San Diego, is being inundated with coronavirus patients.
“The facilities organize a transfer to get a bed for these patients when they cannot find one locally. That radius becomes wider and wider and wider, up to the Bay Area, ”said Cárdenas.
UCSF is a hospital that receives patients from distances that are generally outside the norm.
“It speaks to the fact that these are very unusual times and I would say that, not counting Imperial County as a center of reference, our COVID-19 census is probably 50% out of counties right now, including Imperial County. and Marin County as two examples, but also other counties as well, “said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, UCSF Infectious Disease Specialist.
The San Francisco health department says the county received 5 patients from Imperial County last week.
On Friday, an additional 18 patients were brought in from outside counties, including Marin, where there was an outbreak at San Quentin prison.
Stanford is another hospital that receives patients with COVID-19. It is not known how many other Bay Area hospitals are doing the same.
Global Medical Response, which evacuated patients from a cruise ship docked in the bay in March, also runs Reach Air Medical, which transports patients out of Imperial County.
“Before COVID, I think maybe we probably transfer patients to Northern California a dozen times a year. After COVID, we see it quite frequently, several times a month, sometimes several times a week, “according to Cárdenas.
Bay Area hospitals have generally had a low workload, but the number is increasing.
With patients coming from outside the county for treatment, the number of beds could quickly decrease if there is an increase after the holidays.
“The other area that worries me is that when patients come in they don’t usually go away for a week or a few days, when you have severe COVID, you stay there for a long time, like two or three weeks,” Dr. Chin-Hong said. .
That could lead to accumulated cases.
But there is light coming through the dark clouds. Dr. Chin-Hong says they have learned much more about treating this virus, and that leads to better care and an increased survival rate.
