Triage tent at Lodi hospital comes down

As San Joaquin County begins to see hospitalizations from COVID-19 stabilize, the triage and screening tents in Adventist Health Lodi Memorial’s parking lot were dismantled on Thursday.

Hospital leaders said mitigation efforts in Lodi, such as social distancing and wearing face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic, helped reduce the spread of the virus and provided time for Adventist Health to reconfigure the

emergency department and its processes to keep patients and staff safe.

Goldie Smith, the hospital’s emergency director, said in a media release that Lodi Memorial no longer needs an isolated emergency department for COVID-19 patients outside the building. However, if numbers increase, she said the tent could be erected again.

“It is still important that we heed leaders’ recommendations and practice social distancing,” Smith said. “We are happy we can take the tent down, but know it may be needed again if there is a surge.”

According to the variance for attestation Dr. Maggie Park, San Joaquin County public health officer, submitted to the state last week, Adventist Health Lodi Memorial has the capacity to test 384 people for COVID-19 a day.

When the pandemic first began in mid-March, hospital officials said they had 200 beds available for COVID-19 patients that required admission.

Adventist Health set up the tents in late March to screen for the virus, and officials said they were not needed as much as expected in the early days of the pandemic.

The tents come down as San Joaquin County Public Health Services reported a total of 842 positive COVID19 cases Thursday afternoon, an increase of just nine from Wednesday. A total of 639 people virus have recovered from the virus, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard.

In addition, a total of 176 people who have tested positive in the county required hospitalization since the pandemic began, 74 of which were admitted to intensive care units. There were 14 people in hospitals on Thursday, but it was unknown how needed ICU care.

In the variance for attestation, Park said the entire county has the ability to test 1,140 people a day, but it was difficult to determine exactly how many were actually being tested, as only positive results are reported to county public health when done at commercial labs.

However, a total of 3,619 tests were run in San Joaquin County between May 3 and 12, according to the attestation.

The county has a licensed bed capacity of 952 including intensive care units, and if a surge of cases increased, 1,902 beds would be available.

Adventist Health Lodi Memorial will continue to reserve a section of its emergency department to care for potential COVID-19 patients and is still equipped to take care of all health care needs.

The hospital will also continue to keep service lines running, and surgeries resumed in early May.

“There is no need for our community avoid care,” hospital president Daniel Wolcott said. “We want everyone to access care when they need it. We are ready, we are safe and we have personal protective equipment. We are prepared to safely care for all urgent and emergent problems.”