Hospitals Seek Relaxed Rules For Nursing, Patient Discharge Monday, January 11, 2021 | Sacramento, CA
Registered nurse Merri Lynn Anderson tends to a patient in a COVID-19 unit at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Jan. 7, 2021.
Photo by Jae C. Hong, AP Photo
Facing the largest “surge on top of a surge” of patients since the start of the pandemic, California hospitals today begged state officials for more relief from the “red tape” they say is hampering patient care.
“We find we are standing on a beach and watching a tsunami approach,” said Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, an industry group. “Yet we are still having to deal with regulations that … that in times of crisis need to be set aside. We need additional flexibility so (hospitals) can focus on patient care and not on paperwork.”
Thursday, January 7, 2021 | Sacramento, CA
Nurse practitioner Robert McCary gives the thumbs up as his picture is taken while nurse Anil Shandil gives him the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, Dec. 18, 2020.
Renée C. Byer / The Sacramento Bee via AP, Pool
By Barbara Feder Ostrov, CalMatters
Lea este artículo en español.
Getting the coronavirus vaccines into the arms of as many Californians as possible has become a race against time as COVID-19 cases continue to spiral upward and a more infectious variant of the virus takes root.
Many questions remain unanswered about how the next and much larger wave of Californians will be vaccinated, even as doctors and other health providers in the first priority group are complaining to state officials that they still can’t get access to the vaccines.
Lea este artículo en español.
Getting the coronavirus vaccines into the arms of as many Californians as possible has become a race against time as COVID-19 cases continue to spiral upward and a more infectious variant of the virus takes root.
Many questions remain unanswered about how the next and much larger wave of Californians will be vaccinated, even as doctors and other health providers in the first priority group are complaining to state officials that they still can t get access to the vaccines.
At a vaccine community advisory committee meeting on Wednesday, state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan announced an ambitious immunization goal, acknowledging widespread criticism that the state has moved too slowly to vaccinate its first priority group of frontline health care workers and nursing home residents.