Conditions at Los Angeles County hospitals are worsening by the day, forcing officials to take increasingly desperate measures to prevent the healthcare system from crumbling under a crush of COVID-19 patients.
Methodist Hospital of Southern California has taken the grim step of convening a triage team that will “make the difficult, but necessary decisions about allocating limited resources” to critically ill patients “based on the best medical information available,” officials said in a statement.
As of Wednesday, that team “has yet to find the need to ration any care,” said Cliff Daniels, a senior vice president and chief strategy officer for the Arcadia-based hospital.
Bay Area ICU capacity drops to its lowest level yet
Greg Liggins reports.
California has broken another dubious record as the number of COVID-19 patients being treated in the ICU has crossed above 4,600.
As Southern California buckles under the weight of COVID-19 cases, a Bay Area doctor fears the Bay Area could be next.
Data from the state depicts a disturbing trend with the number of ICU patients rapidly climbing, while the number of ICU beds for them are in sharp decline.
In Southern California, the state’s most dire zone, patients flowing into ICU’s are already spilling over the top, taking a toll on personnel at Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia.
As hospitals are slammed by waves of COVID-19 patients, the California National Guard is lending a hand.
Guard troops are stationed at 13 medical facilities in the state, including Adventist Health White Memorial in Los Angeles, Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia and Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley.
Each team consists of about six to 10 medical corps members, led by a physician or a nurse. Some facilities, like El Centro Regional Medical Center in Imperial County, have two teams.
The Guard has dispatched medical help since the start of the pandemic, but the need is now greater, with hospitals reaching a breaking point from an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases.