Fresno hospitals, busy with other patients, pushed to near-overflow by COVID-19
The number of people hospitalized with confirmed and suspected coronavirus infections continues to climb in Fresno County, reaching more than 280 patients as of Thursday.
Hospitals are already brimming with an abundance of other patients from illnesses, accidents and surgeries. Each new patient requiring admission for COVID-19 simply pushes the medical centers above their normal capacity, said Dr. Rais Vohra, the county’s interim health officer — and edges the county closer to potentially opening a 250-bed field hospital currently in standby mode at the Fresno Convention Center.
“I don’t think it will be this weekend, but if this surge continues the way that it’s been, then we’ll get there,” Vohra said Friday of the need to activate the “alternative care site” set up by the state in April to deal with overflow patients from area hospitals.
Over the past two weeks, the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients being treated in local hospitals has grown by 82%, rising from 133 on July 3 to 242 on July 16, according to data from the state Department of Public Health. The combined count of confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients also soared from 154 to 281 over the two-week period — also about 82%.
Of the coronavirus patients in hospitals Thursday, 48 were being treated in intensive-care units — about one-third of the licensed ICU capacity across the county that is also used to serve other patients with severe needs such as heart attacks, strokes, trauma and other illnesses.
“They’re trying to make space and they’re trying to bring in staff as best they can to help accommodate not only those (COVID-19) patients, but all of the other patients they need to take care of,” Vohra said.
If the county’s emergency medical team does have to activate the site at the Convention Center Exhibit Hall, it would handle non-coronavirus patients who still require a degree of medical attention as they recover from other illnesses before they can be discharged back to their homes.
In the meantime, Vohra said that some COVID-19 patients who are on the road to recovery are being transferred to a 50-bed field site at the Porterville Developmental Center, about 65 miles to the south in Tulare County. “We’re trying to use that Porterville site to decompress some of the hospital needs so that we can make space for new patients as they keep coming in and being admitted,” Vohra said.
Call for staffing
Earlier Friday, Fresno County officials issued a call for trained medical personnel, including nurses, nurse assistants and others to help bolster ranks at facilities across the area if needed, whether as volunteers or potentially paid positions. “The county is building a pool of medically trained personnel to be activated when needed at hospitals, skilled nursing care facilities, or at an alternate care site,” the statement said.
Vohra said the request was issued at least in part with the convention center in mind. “We’re already planning the staffing for that,” he said. “That’s part of the reason we put out that renewed call … is to help us staff that site and other sites that we may need to put up.”
The doctor reiterated a point he’s made repeatedly over the past several months, calling for the public to take seriously the need to halt the spread of the virus to ensure hospitals have the capacity to treat all of the patients who need care, not just coronavirus patients.
The public’s responsibility
“We’ve sort of driven it into the ground, in my opinion: wear a mask when you go out, space yourself out, and absolutely stay home unless you need to run an essential errand,” Vohra said.
“This is a time for all of our community to look around and say, ‘Things are not normal,’” he added. “We have tents in the parking lots of our hospitals. We have FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the National Guard and (emergency medical) agencies from other counties coming in to help us provide medical care for our patients.”
Pediatric patients
Fresno hospitals are transferring all of their pediatric patients to Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera County to clear space for more patients, Vohra said. “That’s another red flag when we have to convert our pediatric capacity over to adult capacity, a red flag that our hospitals are exceeding what they’re normally able to do.”
The medical investigation team for the county Department of Public Health has discovered that a major component in the continued spread of the virus in Fresno County are family gatherings, “small parties, maybe backyard functions that we know are going on,” Vohra said. “All of that is really driving transmission. And all of that has to stop right now.”
“I know that’s very hard to hear. We are social creatures. … We love the culture of our families, we love seeing each other and celebrating so many different things,” he added. “But right now, all of that is leading to increased transmission. This is really a way that people are passing the coronavirus on from one person to another.”
Cases, deaths also increasing
As of Friday, 9,565 Fresno County residents have tested positive for coronavirus infection at some point since March. Over the past two weeks, the average number of new cases each day has been more than 265 in the county.
Also on Friday, Fresno County reported nine more deaths attributed to the virus, bringing the total number of lives lost to the pandemic to 100, “a grim milestone,” Vohra said.
This story was originally published July 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Fresno hospitals, busy with other patients, pushed to near-overflow by COVID-19."
