Fresno hospitals’ COVID patient surge at seven times level of just six weeks ago
Hospitals across Fresno County are handling almost seven times more patients requiring inpatient treatment for COVID-19 than they were six weeks ago, as concerns mount over a continuing surge in new coronavirus cases and the impacts of the virus’ highly contagious delta variant.
The California Department of Public Health reports that 265 people were being treated for coronavirus infections as of Thursday.
That compares to 39 patients on July 1, and is the largest number of confirmed COVID-19 patients sick enough to require hospitalization since mid-February.
“The bad times are back,” Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer, told reporters Friday. The growing caseload is prompting the county to encourage local hospitals to consider limiting elective procedures and surgeries to ease their patient volume.
The county’s emergency medical system, which oversees ambulance responses, is also reinstating an “assess and refer” policy in which ambulance crews may deny rides to hospitals for patients unless they are true emergency situations, Vohra said. That’s another way to address the higher volume of patients that hospitals are experiencing now, he added.
As the workload rises in local hospitals, dozens of health care workers and hospital staff are not available to work because they are isolating from exposure to COVID-19 or in quarantine because they’ve tested positive for the virus.
Between Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno and Clovis Community Medical Center (and other facilities operated by Fresno-based Community Medical Centers) there were 191 confirmed COVID-19 patients, plus 68 more patients with symptoms consistent with the virus — but for whom confirming tests were pending on Friday.
Community reported that they had 154 employees out because of the virus, including 68 who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Saint Agnes Medical Center in north Fresno reported 72 COVID patients in the hospital, and 26 staff who are off work for isolation or quarantine on Friday.
Fresno County health officials have reported that the vast majority of hospitalizations are among people who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera County reported that in the first week of August, there were four inpatient hospitalizations of children with COVID-19. There were also 71 emergency room visits to the hospital for children with coronavirus symptoms – a pace that threatens to exceed the entire month of July.
“We had 82 (emergency) visits in all of July,” said Zara Arboleda, a hospital spokesperson. “We’re definitely seeing a large number of kids coming in for COVID now.”
Over the central San Joaquin Valley, across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties, the total count of confirmed patients reached 453 on Thursday.
That’s nearly seven times more than July 1, when there were 67 hospitalized patients in Valley hospitals. In Fresno County, Thursday’s count was the largest since mid-February, when the region was on the downhill slope from a winter peak of cases and hospitalizations in December and January.
In Visalia, Kaweah Health has 72 coronavirus patients, including 10 in intensive care. The hospital also has 60 employees out on leaves of absence and 12 who are on quarantine for positive tests for the virus.
In the winter peak of the pandemic, as many as 1,100 patients were in Valley hospitals with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, including almost 700 in Fresno County.
There has also been an increase in the sickest patients who require treatment in hospital intensive-care units, both in Fresno and across the Valley.
In Fresno County, there were eight ICU patients with confirmed COVID-19 cases on July 1. That climbed to more than 50 cases earlier this week before settling Thursday at 48 – a six-fold increase in six weeks.
Valleywide, the ICU patient count on Thursday was more than five times higher than on July 1, with 78 confirmed patients compared to 15 six weeks ago.
Between increasing caseloads from COVID-19 as well as other serious illnesses, traumas and conditions, Valley hospitals reported that all but 44 of the region’s 312 licensed ICU beds are available for new patients.
- Fresno County: 149 licensed ICU beds, 15 available on Thursday (10%).
- Kings County: 22 licensed ICU beds, three available (13.6%).
- Madera County: 54 licensed ICU beds, six available, (11.1%).
- Merced County: 24 licensed ICU beds, two available (9.1%)
- Tulare County: 65 licensed ICU beds, 18 available (24.6%).
The situation in the Valley is not as intense as it is in other parts of the country. The Associated Press reported that states including Oregon, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana now have more patients in hospitals with COVID-19 than any other point in the pandemic which began more than a year and a half ago.
Hospitals reimpose visitor limits
The rapid growth of cases has prompted many local hospitals to reinstate limitations on visitors to prevent spreading the virus within their facilities.
And, recalling surge measures put in place last year when hospitals were encountering a rising tide of sick patients, at least one hospital is preparing to place limits on elective surgeries that require an overnight inpatient stay.
“Within just one week, our inpatient numbers have more than tripled,” surgery and telemetry directors at Saint Agnes Medical Center wrote in a memo sent to physicians on Wednesday.
“Given our limited bed availability and the potential for another surge, we need your assistance once again with managing our bed capacity.”
Starting Aug. 23, doctors are being asked to reduce their surgeries and procedures that require an inpatient bed by 50%.
The limits do not apply to outpatient procedures where a patient does not need to be admitted to the hospital overnight.
The Saint Agnes Medical Center is putting a cap of 12 cases per day for elective procedures that need an overnight stay.
Patients who need an overnight stay after an elective cardiac catheter procedure will be limited to five per day.
This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 12:37 PM.
