Huntington Hospital Well Below Capacity

Eighty-three percent of the patients tested at Huntington Hospital for the Coronavirus have tested negative.

Since the outbreak began the hospital has tested 1,184 patients, and 984 of them have tested negative and 178 have tested positive. As of Monday afternoon doctors were awaiting results from 20 tests.

There are currently 61 patients being treated at Huntington Hospital that have tested positive for the Coronavirus.

“Huntington Hospital has been testing for COVID-19 along CDC guidelines to include high-risk individuals, those who are very ill and require hospital care, healthcare providers and other high-likelihood individuals due to known exposures,” the hospital’s website reads.

The hospital receives patients from Pasadena and around the region.

The numbers place Huntington well below its capacity.

As part of its surge plan, the Pasadena City Council voted to convert the Pasadena Convention Center to a 250-bed MASH-like alternate care facility that will be ready to treat COVID-19 patients if the spread of the coronavirus winds up overwhelming the existing number of beds available at Huntington Hospital.

According to a city staff report, the hospital could expand its capacity to about 600 beds – but “projections provided by Huntington Memorial Hospital indicate that at (the outbreak’s) peak, currently estimated for mid-May, there could be as many as 1,300 persons requiring hospitalization at its facility for treatment of COVID-19.’’

“Such a peak would exceed that capacity by approximately 400 beds,’’ the report said.

The models have trended down since then.

Public safety officers, including police, fire fighters and City Manager Steve Mermell paid tribute to health care workers at the hospital two weeks ago when they lined up fire trucks and police cruisers at the hospital and ran their sirens and flashing lights.

Earlier this week, 60,000 masks and gowns were donated to the hospital.

County officials said they want to ramp up testing to 10,000 people a day.

“We continue to test along CDC guidelines and per health department recommendations in both our hospital and outpatient clinic,” said a hospital spokesperson. “We are supporting LA County in its wider efforts to expand access to testing for symptomatic patients by staffing our local Rose Bowl testing site with Huntington Hospital nurses.”