The board of supervisors approved a lease to convert the former Sears building into a facility for overflowing COVID-19 patients, but Santa Barbara County never executed the agreement.
During the July increase in local cases and hospitalizations, the province saw the vacant store as a possible alternative care area for patients on the South Coast.
The lease agreement, which was approved by the board of supervisors but never executed, set out a plan to upgrade the building into a 200-bed healthcare facility to serve patients if the nationwide hospital system is overwhelmed.
The building in La Cumbre Plaza, at State St. 3845, has been vacant since Sears closed in January 2019.
“As for Sears as an alternative care area, it is not currently the direction of the state,” Van Do-Reynoso, director of public health, told supervisors on Tuesday.
‘We currently have a booming capacity in our hospitals. If we have the need to have an alternative care area, we will work together and use what is available in the SLO alternative care area if necessary, and that is a big ‘if necessary’.
“Right now, our hospitals are pretty comfortable and prefer that the expansion of patient care be within their four walls and within their campus. The problem is getting staff.”
North County patients can be sent to the alternative care site (but never used) on Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo’s campus.
“When we pursued the Sears last year as an option, it was a different time and a different space in the pandemic. ‘It is no longer recommended or preferred in our healthcare providers or in the state, as we know what we know for treatment for patients admitted to the hospital,’ Do-Reynoso said.
The board of supervisors approved the lease in July, but the country later decided not to implement the agreement, Skip Gray, assistant director of the General Services, said in an email to Noozhawk on Tuesday.
“After it was determined that the land no longer needed the Sears property, we ultimately did not execute the agreement or lease,” Gray said.
The agreement and intention to lease the property included a “free holding period” until August, he said.
“The country has decided not to enter into the lease on August 28,” Gray said.
The province has another agreement to use the Best Western hotel at Bath 2220 as an alternative care site near Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, but it has not yet been activated, Gray said.
Plans for hospital admissions
Do-Reynoso said hospitals prefer to expand their capacity within their own facilities, which they do with training plans.
Hospitals report that there are currently 13 intensive care units for COVID-19 patients in use. About 64% of ICU patients in the country have COVID-19.
With 211 COVID-19 hospital patients, there are now more than twice as many compared to the summer peak that worries officials of pursuing alternative care areas.
Cottage Health President and CEO Ron Werft last week described the work Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital has done to transform units into COVID-19 treatment areas and attract staff from other parts of the hospital.
There was one COVID-19 isolation unit that was in Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital during Thanksgiving, and now there are five, including two ICU units, Werft said last week.
One of the surgical ICU units has been converted into a unit to care for COVID-19 patients, he added.
The current challenge is more than staff beds, say public health and hospital officials.
“If we look at the increasing demands for our hospitals in Santa Barbara, beds are not going to be the challenge, and PBT and ventilators are not going to be the challenge,” Werft said. ‘The problem is critical care staff.
“Although we are currently staffed more than we would normally see, the ability to identify, recruit and expand to that kind of demand is very challenging.”
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