Barton Health file photo.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Hospitals across California have been experiencing the effects of the coronavirus, with overflowing intensive care units (ICUs) and a workforce stretched to its limits.
On January 5, 2021, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced a plan to reduce pressure on strained hospital systems and redistribute the responsibility of medical care across the state so patients can continue to receive lifesaving care.
This mandate is meant to share resources and staffing related to the current COVID-19 surge.
This means patients from southern and central California, where the ICU bed availability has been at zero percent for days, could be sent to northern California where they are currently seeing 35 percent availability. Even the region that South Lake Tahoe is part of, the Sacramento region, isn't completely full but has 9.7 percent availability (the remining region, the Bay Area is at .7 percent).