Bay Area ICU capacity drops to its lowest level yet
California has broken another dubious record as the number of COVID-19 patients being treated in the ICU has crossed above 4,600.
As Southern California buckles under the weight of COVID-19 cases, a Bay Area doctor fears the Bay Area could be next.
Data from the state depicts a disturbing trend with the number of ICU patients rapidly climbing, while the number of ICU beds for them are in sharp decline.
In Southern California, the state’s most dire zone, patients flowing into ICU’s are already spilling over the top, taking a toll on personnel at Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia.
"It really is so difficult to hear the words that ‘there are 13 icu patients waiting icu. There are 9 ICU patients waiting at ER and they need ICU beds’," cried one nurse while talking to a group outside the hospital.
In the Bay Area Region, ICU availability dropped to 5.1%, as local patients contributed to the record-setting numbers now receiving ICU care.
"I’m very scared of this statistic right now and these are not the records we’re trying to break, mainly because we haven’t hit rock bottom yet,"said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, UCSF Infectious Disease Specialist. "And that’s really frightening to think about."
It’s frightening because in Southern California non-COVID patients who need critical care are finding it more difficult to quickly access help.
Reports say doctors are even caring for patients inside ambulances parked outside hospitals where patients have waited for hours.
"And that’s because people are trying to distribute scarce resources" said Dr. Chin-Hong.
ICU bed availability in the Bay Area region ranged from a high of 63 in Alameda County to the low’s of Solano and Santa Cruz, which tallied 2 each.
These figures will get smaller as the Christmas crush and New Year’s cases hit hospitals in coming weeks, according to doctor Chin-Hong.
"It’s definitely going to happen here. We’re just lagging Southern California."
As seen in New York early in the pandemic, more lives are lost when medical systems bulge, then bust at the seams.
They’re seeing it now in Southern California, and the flow of patients is expected to head north, which could result in compromised care here, even for patients that don’t have COVID-19.
"People are not even thinking about the pre-hospital mortality, which is people not even getting in to get to the hospital because they’re having that death at home, because they couldn’t get resuscitated in time. All of that is possible," said Dr. Chin-Hong.