East Bay hospital adds mobile units in preparation of January COVID spike

CONCORD, Calif. - Bay Area hospitals are bracing for another spike in COVID-19 patients following the upcoming holidays.

In the East Bay, John Muir Health's medical center in Concord has a newly-added section set up outside to help its emergency room department.

What was an empty portable when it arrived two weeks ago has been converted into the hospital's new "Mobile Treatment Unit".

"One of the things that we're preparing to deal with as we get..into the worst part of what we're anticipating with our COVID volumes, is that we will end up holding patients in our emergency departments," said Dr. Russell Rodriguez.

Dr. Rodriguez is the medical director of John Muir's emergency departments in both Concord and Walnut Creek.

 As emergency room beds fill, Dr. Rodriguez says the new portable unit with five treatment areas will be used to process ER patients with less critical issues.

"People with orthopedic injuries, young people low-risk chest pain, patients with abdominal pain," said Dr. Rodriguez.

The new unit can accommodate up to 50 emergency room patients per day, but hasn't been needed yet.

"We wouldn't have put in resources to get this done if we didn't think we would need it. So our anticipation is at some point in the next 2 to 3 weeks we will definitely need it," said Dr. Rodriguez.

Bryan Bucklew is CEO of the Hospital Council-Northern & Central California, which represents 200 hospitals.

"The Bay Area is looking better than the rest of the state, but it's still challenging," said Bucklew.

He says the facilities are seeing five times the number of patients compared to spring.

"The big issue is staff. It is the doctors, especially the nurses with the specialized training for the intensive care units, respiratory therapists," said Bucklew.

He says in San Luis Obispo and Bakersfield, the rates for some traveling nurses have shot up to $200 per hour.