On the west coast of the United States, overwhelmed hospitals in California are building makeshift extra beds for coronavirus patients, and a handful of facilities in hard-hit Los Angeles County are drafting contingency plans in case they need to limit how many people get lives. save worry.
The number of people hospitalized across California with confirmed COVID-19 infections is more than double the state’s previous peak, reached in July, and a state model predicts the total could reach 75,000 patients by mid-January .
Health care rationing plans are not yet in place, but they must be drawn up because “the worst is yet to come,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of health services for Los Angeles County.
While shipments of the vaccine are rolled out to many health professionals and nursing homes across the country, it can take months for the injections to be available to the general public. Until then, four Los Angeles County hospitals are weighing up what to do if they can’t treat everyone because of a shortage of beds or staff.
Emergency department Brenda de la Cruz, right, and RN Janet Hays work outside St Mary Medical Center in the triage tents while handling the 200-bed hospital overflow [File: Mike Blake/Reuters]
A document recently circulated to doctors at the four hospitals suggested that instead of trying to save each life, their goal could shift to saving as many patients as possible – meaning those less likely to survive the same. kind of concern.
“A compromise in the standard of care is inevitable; it is not that an entity, system or locale chooses to limit resources, it is that the resources are clearly not available to provide regular care, ”the document obtained by the Los Angeles Times said.
Many California hospitals have already implemented emergency procedures to expand staff and space.
Corona Regional Medical Center southeast of Los Angeles has converted an old emergency room to treat nearly double the number of ICU patients. It also uses two disaster tents to triage patients in the emergency room (ER).
In total, the state’s ICU capacity was just 2.1 percent on Sunday. Some hospitals have canceled non-essential elective surgeries, such as hip replacements, which may be taking up beds that could soon be needed for COVID-19 patients.
A patient in the COVID area of St Mary Medical Center is viewed through a door window of a temporary walled in area in the hospital during the coronavirus outbreak in Apple Valley, California [File: Mike Blake/Reuters]
Nurses say crushing cases means they have less time to spend with patients, many of whom are sicker than ever before.
“The more patients we have, the more likely we are to make a mistake, especially when we’re in a hurry,” said Wendy Macedo, a nurse at UCLA Health Santa Monica Medical Center. “We try to avoid that, of course, but we are only human.”
California was experiencing “some of the darkest days of our COVID-19 wave,” said Governor Gavin Newsom, but there was some light on Sunday when a group of scientists and experts endorsed a vaccine developed by Moderna. The move paves the way for the drug’s distribution in California and other Western states that have separately reviewed it from the Food and Drug Administration.
Pharmacy chains CVS and rival Walgreens began providing shots at a number of long-term care locations in Connecticut and Ohio last week, and both companies said they would expand their programs in 12 states starting this week. Those states include Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon and Vermont, CVS Health said Monday.
CVS plans to visit each location three times to give residents and staff a first chance and then boost them. It expects to complete the program in about three months.
But because vaccines are limited until about mid-year, political leaders are calling on people to stay at home and wear masks.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has asked airlines flying to his state from the UK to have all passengers take a coronavirus test before boarding. At least one airline, British Airways, has agreed, the Democrat said.
Cuomo wants the US government to temporarily halt flights from the UK due to the emergence of a new strain of the virus in that country.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced new restrictions on social gatherings on Sunday, while still refusing to enforce a mask mandate, despite requests from primary care health workers. Tennessee, one of dozens of states without a mask mandate, has the highest new per capita cases in the country.
In lieu of a mask mandate, the Republican signed an executive order limiting public gatherings to 10 people. However, places of worship, weddings and funerals are exempt.