email article
Recently, Los Angeles County s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency has been in the news for its decision to stop transporting cardiac arrest patients to hospitals. This termination-of-resuscitation guideline, made in the context of soaring patient volumes and worries about overwhelming medical resources thanks to COVID-19, has led to concern that EMS personnel will abandon patients and provide suboptimal care. We are here to tell you that this is not the case. In fact, their decision will likely end up saving lives and is consistent with best evidence-based practice.
We are two emergency medicine physicians who work in Baltimore. You may be wondering how that qualifies us to speak on what is occurring in L.A. County. Well, although Baltimore and Los Angeles County may not be geographically close to one another, the state of Maryland also has guidelines for EMS termination of resuscitation. In fact, Maryland adopted its policy years ago. The decision made by
Occupancy of Hospital Beds Surpasses 80% Mark
As the number of Montgomery County residents with COVID-19 continues to spike, area hospital beds are filling up. As of Thursday morning, 1,720 Maryland residents are hospitalized due to the coronavirus with 416 of those patients in the intensive care unit.
According to the Montgomery County COVID-19 portal, as of Dec. 9, 78% of the intensive care unit beds here were occupied. The percentage of overall hospital inpatient beds occupied was 80.2%. The percentage of hospital inpatient beds that were occupied on Dec. 9 with COVID-19 patients was 20.5%. It was 22.1% on Dec. 7.
CHATS – County/Hospital Alert Tracking System – cited Adventist Hospital White Oak Medical Center in Silver Spring as the most full hospital in the county. Its red alert status means it has no electrocardiogram-monitored beds available, which includes all-inpatient critical care areas and telemetry beds, according to the system which is done by the Maryland Instit