At least three counties in the San Joaquin Valley were among the first in the state to run out of ICU beds.And in this county of nearly 1 million people, there were only 11 available intensive care unit beds on Tuesday. That means many critically ill patients have had to remain in the emergency room when they should be in the ICU, Vohra said.
“There’s other places within the hospital that they’re trying to make space for critical care patients,” Vohra said. Less critically ill patients may need to be cared for outdoors, in the tents set up in the parking lot.The coming weeks are a source of worry. Already, there are intermittent times at which patients in ambulances are waiting several hours before being allowed into the emergency department.
“I’m very worried that we are going to see an uptick in the number of hospitalizations and deaths,” considering the big gatherings that occurred over the holidays, Vohra said. “We haven’t really seen a letup of the surge that we’ve already seen. ... There really hasn’t been a reprieve. And so, we’re certainly just waiting and bracing ourselves to see what the next couple of weeks brings.”
Within the hospitals in Fresno County, officials report they’re still able to adequately provide oxygen through the existing infrastructure; they’ve received help from American Ambulance, a company that provides ambulance service in the county, which has machines to generate oxygen and refill tanks.Advertisement
“We know — because Los Angeles is experiencing this — that the demand could ... overwhelm our ability to meet people’s demands,” Vohra said. Some hospitals are under pressure because of the significant volume of patients, “the inability to find spaces for them,” and limited staffing.
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