‘People are at risk of dying.’ Merced County hospitals at the limit, says health officer
The mounting strain incurred by months of rising novel coronavirus cases has pushed Merced County hospitals to the near-limit, according to the county’s top health officer.
Both hospitals in Merced County have seen a devastating demand surge since November, which has yet to let up and offer relief to the healthcare system.
Climbing cases after Halloween and Thanksgiving led to more COVID-19 infections, emergency room visits and hospitalizations. December was the worst month on record for Merced County in terms of the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
“If the situation further deteriorates, the hospitals in the county will be forced into ‘crisis standards of care,’” said Merced County Health Officer Dr. Salvador Sandoval in a news release.
That would mean delays in treatment, stepping down intensive care and worse healthcare provider-to-patient ratios. It would also mean more difficult decisions concerning which patients to prioritize for life saving intervention.
Merced County has shown a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases and hospital visits due to the Christmas holiday. Another subsequent rise caused by New Year’s festivities is also likely, the op-ed said.
“Typically, increased case counts are followed by increased hospitalizations and ER visits at about two weeks, and deaths about a month later,” Sandoval said.
Total deaths nearing 300
Three more county residents were reported dead due to COVID-19 on Thursday, raising the total number of fatalities caused by the virus to 290.
Thirty of those deaths have been confirmed since New Year’s Eve.
Thursday’s deaths included a woman and two men. Two of the people who died were age 65 or over, one was between ages 50 and 64. At least one of the people who died had an underlying health condition.
Merced County on Thursday also exceeded 23,000 known COVID-19 cases since the pandemic’s start, County Public Health reported. The 267 new laboratory confirmed infections boosted the county’s total caseload to 23,199 cases since March.
Plus, the 44 COVID-19 patients hospitalized within Merced County on Thursday is an increase of one patient since Wednesday.
The most recently available state-provided data reported just three free intensive care unit beds in Merced County on Wednesday. No more than six of the county’s 24 total ICU beds have been available during the month of January, according to the data.
Meanwhile, the 12-county San Joaquin Valley is still at 0% ICU capacity. The nearby Southern California region continues to rank just as low, with its hospitals in just as bad — or worse — shape.
Of the four regions ever subject to stay-at-home orders due to low ICU availability, only the Greater Sacramento area has had its business restrictions lifted.
Merced County hospitals already faring poorly
The unprecedented situation has jeopardized county hospitals’ capacity to assess, treat and process patients in a timely manner.
“People are at risk of dying due to COVID simply because we are in danger of not having the resources to care for them if we continue to see the number of COVID cases increase at the current rate,” said Mercy Medical Center’s Vice President of Medical Affairs Dr. Joerg Schuller in the news release.
The stress on the hospital system has increased patient waiting times, cancellation of elective surgeries and shifting of resources and personnel from usual duties to meet the demand. Hospital beds and entire floors have been allocated solely to treating COVID-19 patients.
Additionally, area hospitals are navigating how to function while their own personnel, already working more hours under increased stress, fall ill. Both Merced County hospitals have reported staffing shortages, the release said.
Each of the county’s hospitals have vacillated between conventional care and “contingency care” at times on a day-to-day basis. Some patients are monitored on a floor rather than in the ICU, while other patients have been transferred to alternate care sites located out of the county, the release said.
If the precarious situation teeters further, Schuller also said Merced County hospitals will descend into crisis standards of care.
“Progressing to crisis level care means triaging medical care and ventilators so that not everyone who may need that level of care will be able to receive it,” Schuller said.
County Public Health will notify the public if that becomes the case, the release said.
In addition to practicing standard COVID-19 safety precautions, County Public Health recommends that residents speak with healthcare providers ahead of time about any treatments that may be available for COVID-19.
More on latest Merced County COVID-19 numbers
Adding to Merced County’s list of impediments against fighting the virus is an “extremely low” number of vaccines received, according to County Public Health.
As of Wednesday, the county had received 6,000 vaccines for a population of roughly 277,680. The health department said it is still advocating for more vaccines.
With daily COVID-19 cases still ranking high, the number of infections considered to be currently active rose again on Thursday by 68 to 3,755.
Other important metrics also pointed to the lack of improvement in lessening COVID-19 transmission.
New daily cases per 100,000 county residents rose to 73.3 from 71.6 on Wednesday. The data point will need to be reduced to seven or less before more nonessential businesses may reopen.
The county’s case positivity rate improved only slightly on Thursday, staying above the 15% threshold at 15.2%. That metric must fall to 8% before any business reopenings take place.
One area of improvement since the new year is active COVID-19 outbreaks. The outbreak list has decreased to 44 locations.
This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 6:37 PM.
