COVID-19 All the time in the hospital, Orange County Hospitals were instructed Thursday to implement surge plans and cancel elective surgeries in response to a “crisis” situation that could cause the emergency medical system to “collapse”.
Elective surgeries involve serious procedures such as stent implantation or heart valve replacement. This term refers to any surgery.
The number of patients hospitalized in Orange County rose from 974 on Wednesday to 1,025 on Thursday, a new record of 257 in intensive care, up from 239 on Wednesday, a new record. The previous peak was 245 in mid-July.
The Orange County Health Care Agency reported 1,521 new cases Corona virus Thursday diagnoses, raising the accumulation to 94,647. The county’s test compliance rate increased from 8.8% to 10.6%.
The agency reported seven new deaths, bringing the death toll to 1,640. One of the deaths was a resident of a skilled nursing facility.
On Wednesday night, HCA sent a letter to hospitals, ambulance providers and 911 paramedic providers, stating that the county’s health care system was “now in crisis” due to the increase in COVID patients, requesting more hospitals to divert ambulances to other medical centers. Due to patient volumes.
According to the letter, “This would be a dangerous delay in early patient assessments to ensure there is no emergency medical condition. Hospitals are flooded with patients entering the floors and ICUs. At the current rate of decline, the EMS system may collapse if emergency commands are not executed now. ”
The letter, written by HCA’s EMS Medical Director Dr. Carl Schultz, urged hospitals to activate flood plans, set up alternative treatment areas in emergency departments to expand capacity, cancel all selective surgeries, apply for state amnesty in support of flood plans and set up emergency operation centers. .
“For those who choose not to take these painful but necessary steps, there is still time, but you must take action now,” Schultz wrote.
Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said the county is now facing an increase in cases from Thanksgiving.
“It’s basically a Hail Mary Pass,” said Andrew Noimer, UC Irwin Associate Professor of Population Health and Disease Prevention, as per county directives to hospitals. “It explains the gravity of the situation.”
He confirmed that this week’s figures reflect the Thanksgiving meetings.
The county percentage of available ICU beds rose from 11.2% to 11.3% on Thursday, but according to the new state metric for “adjusted” ICU bed availability, the rate has risen from 4.9% to 3.5%, HCA said.
Kim said the adjusted ICU number reflects the number of beds available to COVID-19 patients when factoring the number of beds required for patients without coronavirus.
The available ICU capacity in the 11-County Southern California area dropped from 9% to 7.7% on Thursday.
Orange County’s northern urban neighborhood Thursday Reported 12,819 new cases, breaking the record set on Sunday.
To drive the point home, Mayor Eric Garcetti dropped another excellent figure. “In Los Angeles, someone dies with COVID-19 every 20 minutes,” he said.
A total of 3,634 people infected with the virus were hospitalized Thursday in LA County. This is a 6% increase from Wednesday and a new high.
“We can see the number of 4,000 hospital admissions per day in two weeks,” said Barbara Ferrer, LA County Director of Public Health. Tuesday is the day. Overall the beds are 75% full, Ferrer said, revealing that some hospitals in the LA network have already run out of ICU beds.
LI County Directorate of Health and Human Services Dr Christina Ghali said on Thursday that with a high admission rate i.e. shortage of available and staffed regular beds and ICU beds, county hospitals are likely to go into surge plans.
On Tuesday, she found that 77% of Los Angeles County hospitals implemented two-hour ambulance diversions due to emergency room conditions. On a typical day at this time of year, usually only 10% to 15% of hospitals call for such diversions.
On the same day, the highest number of COVID-related deaths was reported in California at 220. On Wednesday the country experienced the highest daily number of coronavirus-related deaths of more than 3,000.
The City News Service contributed to this report.
More from the deadline
Best of Deadline
Subscribe Deadline newsletter. For the latest news, follow us Facebook, Twitter, And Instagram.
About The Author
More Stories
How List Acquisition Helps Your Political Campaign Become Successful
Four escaped cows were caught
A simple administrative decision? | Press