There were nine COVID-19 positive patients at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital on Thanksgiving, up from 90 on Friday, according to Cottage Health President / CEO Ron Werft.
The number of new new coronavirus cases and the percentage of positivity tests (how many tests have a positive result) is still increasing, indicating that the current wave is far from over, he said at the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department briefing Friday.
Public health officials had stressed the importance of not meeting during the holiday season, fearing it would lead to an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, and a week into the new year, those fears are become reality.
“During the holiday season, our numbers had skyrocketed,” said Health Director Van Do-Reynoso Friday. “I was concerned. I was worried that if people got together, we would get a wave on top of a wave.”
178 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized on Thursday, and the county reported 24 COVID-19-related deaths this week. Some of the deaths occurred in December, and others occurred in early January.
Thirteen of the people who recently died from COVID-19 lived on the South Coast, 10 lived in the Santa Maria Valley, and two lived in the Santa Ynez Valley.
Updated numbers were not available Friday due to a problem with the state’s reporting system, public health officials said.
Early in the pandemic, hospitals were concerned about a shortage of personal protective equipment and ventilators, Werft said, but those are not challenges to the current increase in patient numbers.
Cottage now has 98 fans, 21 of which are used on COVID-19 patients, and an ample supply of PPE, Werft said.
Concerns are now about the capacity of staffed beds in intensive care units in hospitals, where the most critically ill patients are treated.
There was one COVID-19 isolation unit operating at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital over Thanksgiving, and now there are five, including two ICU units, Werft said.
One of the surgical ICU units has been converted into a unit for the care of COVID-19 patients, he added, and there is a designated ICU for non-COVID-19 patients.
Cottage has 45 staffed ICU beds, but good staff could increase that number to 57. According to Werft, there are plans to further increase that number to 70 ICU beds at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and eight at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital.
An IC bed can only be used if there are enough staff to monitor the patient in it, Werft said. Over the past two weeks, Cottage generally had five to eight staffed ICU beds available, he added.
“Looking at the rising demand for our Santa Barbara hospitals, beds won’t be the challenge, PPE and fans won’t be the challenge,” said Werft. “The problem is the intensive care staff. While we currently have more staff than we would normally see, the ability to identify, recruit and expand that type of demand is a major challenge. “
While there are plans to create more capacity to treat the growing number of patients, the need for more staff remains.
“There is a limit to what we can handle if the numbers continue to rise at this rate,” said Werft.
With hospitals running out of space across the state, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is receiving more and more requests for transfers. According to Werft, the hospital receives two to four transfer requests every 24 hours.
In order for a transfer patient to be admitted, the hospital must have adequate capacity, perform at a higher level of care, and the other hospital must have exhausted all possible solutions, Werft said.
“We need to have resources, be on a higher level of care and not compromise our ability to provide care to our local community,” he added, noting that only a few requests have been accepted recently.
The district dashboard notes that the three hospitals in the district are already using 11 IC beds to treat COVID-19 positive patients.
Lompoc Valley Medical Center and Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria are the other provincial hospitals that treat COVID-19 patients, the majority of which are in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria.
LVMC CEO Steve Popkin said in a weekly update Friday that there are 12 COVID-19 positive patients.
“This patient volume in the province is putting enormous pressure on hospitals, and especially patient care personnel,” he said. “The three Santa Barbara County hospital systems are working very closely, and in partnership with Santa Barbara County and other stakeholders, and have been able to manage the situation effectively. As difficult as it is here, there are other parts of the state that are in much more difficult situations. We believe things will change quickly, and until they do, we will all do everything we can to meet the needs and expectations of our respective communities. “
Werft said Cottage Health hopes to open a drive-thru vaccination site at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital next week for caregivers and other eligible people in the first stage.
Cottage began administering vaccines the day they arrived in the county, and has now administered about 3,400 to staff, he said.
– Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at . (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @Newsurvey and @RTLnews. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.