Hospital Helping Patients Get One-On-One Time With Families Through iPad Calls As Health Experts Forecast Third Surge Syndicated Local – CBS Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) At many hospitals in the Southland, like USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, healthcare teams are overwhelmed by the number of patients coming in, but they’re taking steps to make sure everyone is cared for and gets some TLC.
Workers take turns during breaks filling the hallways with music, as cheery decorations draped on desks and equipment soften the critical work they do to keep patients alive.
iPads, too, are playing a role in the pandemic by bridging the gap for patients COVID and non-COVID who are all isolated due to pandemic restrictions.
L.A. County hits record 145 daily COVID deaths, officials warn about vaccine scams
Dec. 24, 2020 at 6:00 am
The COVID-19 surge in L.A. County continues unabated with 16,525 new cases and a record daily death count of 145 reported on Dec. 23.
County health officials urged everyone to stay home for the holidays and warned residents to turn down any vaccine offers from private individuals as scams are circulating.
“The winter holidays invite us to spread joy and light to those around us. Perhaps as we weigh the request to delay travel plans and gather only with members of our own household we can find comfort in making these sacrifices, because we know that by staying home we’re giving others the ultimate holiday gift; we may be saving their lives,” said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer in a Dec. 23 public briefing.
This Christmas, the best present you can give to friends and family is the gift of good health and future prosperity.
How to do that? By doing nothing as in no shopping sprees, no partygoing, no large family gatherings. In short, no fun.
It’s a tremendous ask, but consider the benefits of sacrificing the usual holiday traditions now for a payout in January and beyond: available hospital beds for those who need them, relaxed safer-at-home restrictions, reopened restaurant patios and hair salons, and a lower body count.
It would be an amazing gift to healthcare workers as well. Though they are the first people slated to get COVID-19 vaccinations, it will be weeks until they are all fully protected. Meanwhile, these frontline workers have already paid a terrible price. A joint investigation by Kaiser Health News and the Guardian identified more than 2,900 U.S. healthcare workers who have died from COVID-19.