Hospitals in LA County: ‘We’re getting crushed’
LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Fueled by the continued surge in COVID-19 cases, available space continued to dwindle Friday at Los Angeles County hospitals, with health-care professionals imploring the public to take the virus seriously to prevent medical centers from being overrun and unable to care for patients.
“We’re getting crushed. I’m not going to sugarcoat this. We are getting crushed,” said Dr. Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. “For most of the days of the last week, we’ve had zero ICU beds open in the morning, and we have had to scramble — ‘can we move this patient here,’ ‘can we move that patient there.’ … We’re already expanding care into areas of the hospital we don’t normally provide that type of care in.
“... And it isn’t just COVID patients,” he said. “It’s car accidents and heart attacks and victims of violence. They need a place to go to receive critical care. We can only react. We cannot stop the spread. We need the public to listen to these mitigation strategies to slow the spread or we will completely run out of beds.”
Spellberg also voiced the frustration felt by health care workers caused by those who deny the severity of the virus and downplay its impact on hospitals.
“The amount of moral courage it takes to run towards the danger makes it very frustrating for our heroes every day to come to our hospitals and care for patients when we see video and hear people not taking the public health strategies seriously,” he said.
His comments came amid a surge of cases that has exploded across the county since November, exacerbated by the Thanksgiving holiday and accompanying gatherings that occurred in spite of warnings against them.
Dr. Christina Ghaly said that as of Friday morning, there were 699 total available hospital beds in Los
Angeles County — with a population of 10 million people — and just 69 ICU beds. That’s down from Thursday’s figures of 716 overall beds and 92 ICU beds. Ghaly noted that the figures represent a “snapshot in time” from a daily morning poll of the county’s 70 “911- receiving” hospitals with emergency rooms, and the numbers can fluctuate dramatically throughout the day.
In recent days, county hospitals have been operating near their overall licensed capacity of about 2,500 ICU beds.
The county reported another 96 Coronavirus-related deaths on Friday, although seven of those fatalities were confirmed Thursday by health officials in Long Beach and Pasadena. Long Beach health officials announced one additional death Friday. The new fatalities lifted the countywide cumulative death toll from the virus to 8,758.
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said average daily deaths from COVID-19 in the county have spiked up 267% since Nov. 9, reaching 44 per day as of last week, and likely even higher this week given the recent rising death figures. Ferrer said that equates to two people in the county dying from COVID- 19 every hour.
Another 16,504 COVID infections were confirmed in the county Friday, one of the highest daily numbers reported throughout the pandemic. Long Beach health officials reported another 547 cases Friday afternoon. The new cases lifted the countywide cumulative total to 597,268.
As of Friday, the following areas reported COVID-19 cases and deaths:
• Palmdale: 11,869 cases and 104 deaths.
• Lancaster: 10,777 cases and 106 deaths (includes cases associated with correctional facility outbreaks).
• Lake Los Angeles: 736 cases and four deaths.
• Quartz Hill: 543 cases and 14 deaths.
• Sun Village: 427 cases and five deaths.
• Littlerock: 247 cases and one death.
• Littlerock/Pearblossom: 227 cases and one death.
• Acton: 194 cases and three deaths.
• Agua Dulce: 96 cases and no deaths.
• Littlerock/Juniper Hills: 54 cases and no deaths.
• Pearblossom/Llano: 49 cases and one death.
• Leona Valley: 48 cases and no deaths.
• Elizabeth Lake: 26 cases and no deaths.
• Llano: 22 cases and no deaths.
• Lake Hughes: 18 cases and no deaths.