Hospitals Prepare For Possible Surge In Coronavirus Cases

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Counties across the Sacramento region are dealing with an increase in hospitalizations.

As of Thursday, San Joaquin County has a 100% increase in hospitalizations with only 29% of its ICU beds available for patients.

Neighboring Stanislaus County is now dealing with a 111% increase.

Sacramento County is seeing the highest increase in just the past two weeks. Hospitalizations are up 130% and ICU patients are also up 156%. Right now, the county has 16% of ICU beds available.

CBS13 talked with Phyllis Baltz, president of Dignity Health Methodist Hospital, who said that of the six hospitals in her division, hers is dealing with an increase in patients.

"We are definitely seeing more patients who have been admitted with COVID. Since the end of June, we've seen that volume double from the prior month. However, we still have capacity at the hospitals," she said.

CBS13 also reached out to Kaiser who sent us the below statement from Dr. Stephen Parodi, Associate Executive Director of The Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Permanente Northern California:

We are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases in California. Our Kaiser Permanente facilities and staff are responding to this increased number of hospitalized patients expertly treating patients with the virus while safely caring for other conditions as well. 

We each have an important role in stopping the spread of the virus and keeping one another safe. While we wait for a vaccine, we need to embrace these public health actions that focus on social distancing measures including maintaining six feet of distance and using masks to protect each other.  Following these measures is crucial now to stop the rising tide of these infections.

Sutter Health sent us the below statement:

Sutter Health has worked closely with state officials and other healthcare partner organizations to comprehensively care for a surge in patients and maintain our surge readiness. Sutter Health is using the breadth of our integrated network to care for all patients, including those with COVID-19, and increase our critical care capacity two to three times where needed. We operate in 22 counties and because our hospitals, surgery centers and ambulatory clinics are interconnected, we can move resources and people to where they are needed most. Additionally, because Sutter invested in a single electronic health record system, caregivers have full access to every patient's health information, wherever that care is provided.

At the same time, we have been gradually broadening clinical services and caring for those patients with medically necessary, time-sensitive procedures and preventive care needs like cancer screenings, immunizations and other necessary clinical services. We are taking a careful, phased approach that prioritizes the safety of our patients, employees and clinicians.

We are experiencing an increase in cases in some areas of our footprint. Because of the breadth of our network we are able to care for both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients across our communities.

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• Coronavirus