My hospital floor where I have been since Saturday morning (just discharged for my safety) had three wings with covid19 surrounding my small unit. And that’s just one floor. Yesterday there was two wings. The icu on the floor below is covid19. The less serious are in the covered open sides parking structure in tents and heaters. It was raining yesterday. Plus freaking cold high 30s to 40. The ER is for no Covid patients. If you have any symptoms you are triaged outside and sent to the back of the hospital. When I was entering the ER, there were markers on the ground outside that were 6’ apart. Standing on the sticker behind me was a coughing woman. I told triage and they went outside and asked if they were coughing. The guy said no but the woman couldn’t hold back from coughing and he sent her to behind the building. I actually like Los Robles hospital. They are pretty strict. The doctors got vaccinated first, the nurses and lab and some imaging last week. Food service not yet so I asked that no housekeeping or food service enter....just in case.
This hospital, where dr Natale ablates in California, has all private rooms. The head of the hospital retrofitted the heating/AC vents back in February/March so each room is self contained with a filtering system. The covid19 wards have a damper to close off any cross contamination and there are additional HEPA units in each room. I was told today of them preparing back then for a potential pandemic. The staff in the covid19 wards do not leave the ward during their 12 hour shifts. They have a negative flow blasting system when entering. You go through a closed room before entering the covid wings. Unfortunately the elevators are shared because my floor has 3 elevators to service three covid wards plus my telemetry ward.
My local hospitals (3) has zero beds available. Cedars-Sinai has a wait list for emergency surgeries due to lack of beds.
Just thought I would post if you live in Los Angeles.
I was told the hospital in the city of Ventura, north of LA and south of Santa Barbara isn’t as bad yet. Since Christmas flying they may fill up soon. If you live in LA, I would drive there if you need an ER. I was in >200 af tachy two weeks ago and we were the only ones in the ER. Now they still have room. My local three ERs are busy I was told.
