The astronomical coronavirus boom in Los Angeles has infected thousands of health care workers over the past few weeks, exacerbating tensions in hospitals struggling to care for critically ill patients.
More than 2,200 people working in LA County hospitals tested positive for the virus in December alone, which is about a third of all hospital infections reported during the pandemic. While nursing homes and outpatients have suffered the most in recent months, besieged hospitals and their beleagured workers have been hit hardest by the winter congestion.
Dr Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, said that adequate staffing in his hospital – where the ICU is up to 150% of its normal capacity – is an ongoing challenge, with staff members out of service because they are ill with COVID-19 or quarantine due to exposure. Hospitals in California have reported similar trends.
‘Someone who wears their personal protection well and deals with high-risk patients does not get sick at work. … When they get home, their teen can give them COVID. We see it a lot, ”Mahajan said. ‘In the end, we have everything we need, from nurses to doctors to even the conservation staff who help us move the rooms. And all of that makes it even harder to attack more and more patients. ”
The recent explosion of the coronavirus has trapped LA’s hospitals in a vicious cycle. The more people are sick, the more likely others will become infected, as well as outside of work. This in turn increases staff shortages at hospitals – at a time when the public needs the most medical care.
Outbreaks have also skyrocketed in recent months among workers from grocery stores and retailers and in other workplaces. But the increase in infections comes at an important time for LA hospitals, as they turn under an avalanche of patients and hide ambulances, aisles with gurneys and bodies in crowded morgues.
Officials reported Tuesday that a record 7,898 people with COVID-19 are currently being admitted to LA County hospitals, a record number that is expected to grow in the coming weeks.
“We will continue to work with organizations across the province to ensure that health workers are protected in every location,” Barbara Ferrer, director of the LA Department of Public Health, said this week.
Since the pandemic began, 28,448 health workers and first responders have tested positive for the coronavirus in LA County, and 132 have died from the virus, Ferrer said. Hospitals, nursing homes and outpatients are responsible for most cases.
Infections among health workers increased as the common cases increased. In a single week mid-December, because LA County reported more coronavirus infections than ever before, 2,363 health workers and first responders became ill with COVID-19, compared to 360 two months earlier.
Hospitals are where these problems worsen. Nurses and doctors were stretched because COVID-19 patients were flooding hospitals, and staff themselves were not left with the disease, UCLA emergency nurse Marcia Santini said.
“We have a very sick population, but there is a staff crisis,” she said. “All of this really puts these facilities under stress.”
Santini became ill with COVID-19 last month, although she is not sure how she contracted the virus. She cared for COVID-19 patients before she became ill, but her husband showed symptoms in front of her, indicating that he got it at work and then passed it on to her.
Her illness became so severe that she could not breathe and was hospitalized for days. Almost three weeks later, she easily stays tired. “I’ve never been through something like this,” she said.
At the Kaiser Permanent San Jose Medical Center, at least 43 staff members recently contracted the coronavirus, including one who died, as part of an outbreak possibly linked to an employee wearing an inflatable holiday costume at the hospital to to arouse mood.
In Fresno County, where only 11 ICU beds were available Tuesday, a recent outbreak of health workers who fell ill or had to stay home due to exposure to the virus hampered hospitals’ ability to treat patients, the interim health official said. dr. Rais Vohra, said.
“We have hundreds of people who are no longer working in our hospitals,” Vohra said. “There are so many cases that are happening, whether it’s a healthcare worker who is ill or a family member who is ill, that affects our ability to care, because that person then has to take time.”
Unlike in the spring, when a shortage of personal protective equipment and fans was the most pressing issue, the concerns during this latest boom were mainly related to staff. The U.S. Department of Defense is hiring combat physicians and nurses to assist hospitals in California.
LA officials have redeployed nearly 800 clinic nurses to work in its public hospitals, while other local hospitals have recruited doctors and nurses from other departments to assist in the ICU, albeit with varying degrees of success.
“To be honest, you get comfortable in your field of knowledge, and if you are put somewhere else, you are a little fish out of the water,” said dr. Frank Candela, who is on the medical executive committee of West Hills Hospital. ‘People are thin. They are persistent. They are adapting, but it puts a lot of pressure on the person doing it, as well as on patient care. ‘
Many health professionals cite the emotional toll of not only seeing strangers seriously ill, but their own colleagues who have been hospitalized with the virus, or even killed by it. Candela said Ernesto Ruelas, an environmental worker at the hospital, died of COVID-19 this week. “He is deeply missed,” Candela said.
He said staff who fell ill with COVID-19 were mostly apprehended. But this has not always been the case.
In an unfortunate incident during the summer, COVID-19 infections were transmitted among staff who lingered during breaks, often without masks and distance, he said. The outbreak eventually spread to patients as well, he said.
Candela said the hospital has since started breaking down so people do not eat lunch at the same time, and now prohibits bringing in food to share with others. But he said he hopes the hospital’s experience shows the public that even small decay can have devastating consequences.
“We learned the lesson the hard way: that we can not watch,” he said.
This dark moment of the pandemic is exacerbated by ongoing vaccinations, health workers say.
The first people to be vaccinated in California will receive their second dose this week, which provides 95% immunity to the coronavirus. With the protection, hospitals will eventually not be so short, Mahajan said.
“Right now it’s the worst time because the vaccine is not long enough yet,” he said. “But it’s going to be less of a problem as the days and weeks of January pass.”
Mahajan warned his staff that the extreme boom would last at least another five weeks. LA County officials said this week that they expect the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 to grow by at least 1,000 within the next two weeks, although only about 20 ICU beds are available.
“One of the things I tried to tell our staff when we entered the Christmas holidays is that it’s rest time,” Mahajan said. “I asked them to make it easier for themselves during the holidays – take some time for themselves and their families – because we have so much more to do.”