Overflowing hospital morgues have increased waiting times by 911, with beds opening only when patients die. Hospitals in California, where almost all of the state’s 40 million people live under home orders, see historical stress points.
Increasing the number of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations is pushing Los Angeles County hospitals to the brink of disaster, a top health official said.
In just over a month, Los Angeles County has doubled its number of infections, from about 400,000 cases on Nov. 30 to more than 800,000 cases on Jan. 2, health officials said Monday.
The flood of cases resulted in an increase in patients with Covid-19, overwhelming hospitals and a decrease in the capacity of the intensive care unit in the region to zero. Currently, there are over 7,600 people hospitalized with Covid-19 in the county, of which 21% are in the ICU, officials said
With no hospital beds available, ambulance crews in the county were instructed not to transport patients with little chance of survival. And patients who are often transported have to wait for hours before the bed is available.
“Hospitals declare internal disasters and have to open church gyms to serve as hospital units,” said supervisor Hilda Solis, calling the situation a “human disaster.”
And one person dies from the virus every 15 minutes, said Barbara Ferrer, director of public health in Los Angeles County.
As hospitalizations go up, the Los Angeles Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMS) has directed ambulance crews not to transport patients with little chance of survival to hospitals and to keep oxygen use.
Before the pandemic, when health care workers and resources were more readily available, patients who were unlikely to recover could be transported by ambulance to the hospital for treatment.
But hospitals in Los Angeles are now in capacity and many medical facilities do not have the space to receive patients who have no chance of survival, the agency said. Patients whose hearts have stopped despite resuscitation efforts, County EMS said, should no longer be transported to hospitals.
“Effective immediately, due to the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on EMS and 9-1-1 receiving hospitals, adult patients (aged 18 years or older) in traumatic and non-traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA)) will be transported [if]the return of spontaneous traffic (ROSC) is not done on the ground, “the agency said in a memorandum issued to ambulance workers last week.
If there are no signs of breathing or pulse, EMS will continue to perform resuscitation for at least 20 minutes, the note states. If the patient is stabilized after the resuscitation period, he would be taken to hospital. If the patient is pronounced dead on the spot or the pulse cannot be restored, paramedics will no longer transport the body to the hospital.
And even after arriving at hospitals, some EMTs have to wait for hours outside, as hospitals often do not have enough beds to receive patients.
“We wait at least two to four hours for a hospital and now we have to drive on … then we wait another three hours,” EMT Jimmy Webb told CNC affiliate KCAL.
Local officials have tried to encourage the public not to call 911 unless “it really should,” Dr. Marc Eckstein, commander of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s EMS office, told CNN affiliate KABC.
“I think the next four to six weeks will be critical for our system to be taxed,” Eckstein added.