Huntington Hospital Sees Rapid Increase in Number of COVID-19 Patient Admissions

The CEO of Huntington Hospital told the City Council on Monday that the hospital is seeing rapid increases in patient admissions and COVID tests.

The hospital is seeing a spike in coronavirus cases.

Lori J. Morgan said that Huntington – with a total of 47 ICU beds “that we could staff currently’’ – had three COVID patients and 23 non-COVID patients in the ICU as of Monday, leaving 21 spaces that could be staffed under current nurse-patient ratios. The balance of the COVID patients are being treated in non-ICU areas of the hospital.

The hospital is still away from its highest count of COVID-19 patients which was 79 on April 29.

Morgan said the hospital could “potentially” flex up to 89 ICU beds, but that staffing those beds might pose a problem “unless we were able to relax some of our nurse-patient ratios.’’

Additional nurses who worked temporarily at Huntington during California’s initial surge of COVID cases have since moved on, making staffing for any potential ICU flex-up a worry, Morgan said.

According to Morgan, the hospital’s seven-day testing average was 51 three weeks ago but has since more than doubled to 106.

On Monday – The city is averaging about 42 cases a day.

“Our seven-day average for COVID tests three weeks ago was 51 (while) in the last seven days it’s been 106,’’ Huntington Hospital CEO and President Lori Morgan told the City Council on Monday. “Three weeks ago, our average (number of) in-patients was 21, and last week, in the last seven days, it has been up to 38.’

According to the hospital’s COVID-`9 dashboard, currently 43 patients are being treated at the hospital. Since the pandemic began, the hospitals highest COVID-19 patient count was 79 on April 29.

Morgan told the council three patients are currently being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit “The most important question we need to ask ourselves now is how can each of us individually and each of us collectively choose actions that can slow the spread, save lives and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, prevent further restrictions in the coming week and get us back to reopening to preserve our businesses, jobs and children going to school,” said Public Health Director Dr. Ying Ying Goh.

City officials reported 49 additional cases of the virus on Tuesday.

The virus is having a side effect on patients suffering from other ailments. Those patients are waiting longer to come to the hospital out of a fear of COVID. That delay could be leading to an increase in miocardio and stroke fatalities.

In June, city officials closed an emergency facility at the Convention Center where 250 beds were placed in case of Huntington Hospital reaches capacity.

“We are in an appropriate patient to nurse ratio per the state of California, and have stayed within those ratios even when our COVID-19 positive census was at its highest last Spring,” said Dorey Huston, Senior Manager of Public Relations. “We have also hired additional licensed nurses and trained them in our trusted brand of care. Hiring traveling nurses is very challenging right now, as many have gone to hospitals in the Midwest, which began surging several weeks ago.”