Coronavirus Patient Surge: Seeking Hospital Beds, Alternative Spots For The Not-So-Sick
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Much has been said of how hospital are going to handle the very sick; the people who will need ventilators and critical care. Then there's another challenge: what to do with the people who are not very sick, but need to be isolated so they get well without spreading the virus to people who are not infected.
"Please, do not go to the emergency room or an urgent care center unless you have a true life-threatening emergency," says Grant Colfax, San Francisco's Director of Public Health.
On Thursday, San Francisco health officials begged everyone to avoid the emergency room if at all possible. An overwhelmed health care system is the very heart of this crisis, and that means finding a place to isolate people who don't necessarily need a hospital.
"You have to look at picturing additional assets," Gov. Gavin Newsom explained. "Not just for the homeless, but for the general population."
Newsom thinks California will need as many as many as 20,000 additional beds beyond our hospital capacity.
"We will announce two large hospitals that we have procured that we will be bringing into our portfolio to address that 19-, 20-thousand gap," Newsom said of the effort to find more space.
And the two hospitals are just a start. The state has also identified 960 hotels it might use, along with 1,300 travel trailers, and the possibility of temporary facilities at places like county fairgrounds, armories and vacant lots.
San Francisco has also started using hotel space for one population.
"Those first people were homeless individuals who were tested in the hospital that are not showing signs that they need to be hospitalized," said Trent Rohrer, head of San Francisco's Human Services Agency. "So we move them from the hospitals to that particular hotel."
Thursday, I asked if San Francisco was looking at any other locations to isolate those who do not need to be hospitalized. I'm told that Bill Graham Civic Auditorium was considered, but found to be a bad fit for the task. It is fair to assume other sites are being looked at, anything to take the strain off of our hospitals, and our badly needed critical care services.
"Those places desperately need to be saved for the people who are truly ill and need the most," Colfax told city residents.
San Francisco General Hospital says it is preparing to isolate coronavirus patients on one single floor of the hospital.
