How bad is LA County s hospital crisis? Paramedic gives frontline view of desperate situation
KABC
LOS ANGELES (KABC) Tanya Crabbe has been with the Los Angeles Fire Department for 12 years and a paramedic for four.
Crabbe says the job has its challenges, but our current COVID-19 surge has her hanging on by a thread. It s a tremendous amount of pressure. I only have so many resources with my knowledge and experiences and certifications and my equipment, but if the hospital is unavailable, I just don t have the resources that that patient may need, said Crabbe. They need a doctor, a hospital bed to be taken care and how do you explain that to the patient, they don t understand that. How do you explain that to the patient s family. I only have so much I can do for you at this moment.
New protocol allows saturated SD hospitals to temporarily turn away ambulances
and last updated 2020-12-16 21:19:02-05
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Following a surge in 911 calls from COVID-19 patients, the County of San Diego is now allowing hospitals to divert ambulances if their emergency rooms are already too full. The County reports that the new protocol was tested last weekend and proved to be successful.
The County reports that this new type of diversion goes above and beyond the routine ambulance diversion of only a subset of patients that hospitals use on a regular basis.
Hospitals across San Diego that are saturated are now allowed to request total ambulance diversion, meaning ambulances have to stop bringing in more patients. A letter posted this Tuesday from the County s Director of Emergency Medical Services details how the new protocol will help area hospitals recover from the rapid influx of patients.