With nearly 20,000 new COVID-19 cases and 318 new deaths in LA County on Friday, there are growing concerns as hospitals are nearing the point when triaging.
California bypasses tough nurse care rules amid virus surge
Jan. 08, 2021 at 12:22 pm
OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press
Nerissa Black was already having a hard time tending to four COVID-19 patients who need constant heart monitoring. But because of staffing shortages affecting hospitals throughout California, her workload recently increased to six people infected with the coronavirus.
Black, a registered nurse at the telemetry cardiac unit of the Henry Mayo Hospital in Valencia, just north of Los Angeles, barely has time to take a break or eat a meal. But what really worries her is not having enough time to spend with each of her patients.
About a dozen vehicles with nurses from Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital caravanned through Valencia Friday morning to protest increased nurse-to-patients staffing ratios due to the COVID-19 surge, which they say puts patients at risk.
The hospital is among several in California that was granted last month a temporary expedited waiver from the state Department of Public Health to bump up the number of patients nurses in intensive care units can oversee at one time.
Hospital officials said Friday they are hiring staff and are offering competitive salaries and benefits, as well as incentives to current clinical employees to work extra shifts. In response to the demonstration, officials said the issue is not unique to Henry Mayo.
The Bay Area stay-at-home order will not be lifted on Saturday and likely will be extended indefinitely as the region’s hospitals remain under intense stress from rising coronavirus cases and intensive care availability drops precariously low. The state order could have been lifted at the end of day Friday, three weeks after it was put in place. But ICU availability for the 11-county region fell to 3% on Friday its lowest level yet and well.