Kaweah Health declares 2nd COVID disaster in 3 months. Visalia hospital treats CA's most COVID patients
Kaweah Health is treating more COVID-19 patients than any other hospital in California and on Wednesday declared an "internal disaster" for the second time in three months.
The Visalia hospital declared the emergency -- known as a Code Triage -- with more than 50 patients waiting for a hospital bed and an additional 60 patients awaiting emergency treatment.
"We live in an area where normally there are a high number of hospitalizations due to chronic illness and high medical needs. Additionally, we have the highest number of COVID-19 patients in [California] and there just isn’t enough room for everyone,” Vice President Keri Noeske said in a news release.
As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, 368 patients were being treated at the hospital's downtown medical center. No beds are available for additional patients needing hospitalization.
Of those, 110 patients were COVID-19 positive, according to hospital officials. Twenty-five were in the ICU.
Wait times at the hospital's newly expanded emergency department are "exceptionally long," hospital officials said, particularly for patients with non life-threatening conditions. Residents are urged to visit their primary care doctor or an urgent care clinic unless they are at risk of dying.
The hospital previously declared a COVID-19 triage on Aug. 17 with 340 patients receiving or awaiting treatment, the most Kaweah Health CEO Gary Herbst had ever seen at the time.
“When coupled with staffing shortages, this intense patient demand is putting a significant strain on our organization,” Herbst said. “Declaring an internal disaster mobilizes our resources and initiates our Incident Command Center.”
Herbst added that the hospital is in talks with the California Department of Public Health to bring direly needed resources to the struggling hospital. Several Kaweah Health patients are now being treated in overflow areas, mirroring conditions at the height of the pandemic's surge in Tulare County.
Hospital leaders attribute the situation to low vaccination rates across the central San Joaquin Valley. Tulare County ranks 45 out of California's 58 counties, with just over 46% of the population vaccinated.
"COVID-19 hospitalizations are very different in other areas of the State, particularly in counties with higher vaccination rates," Kaweah Health said when announcing the triage. "In areas where there are high vaccination rates, hospitalizations are much lower."
Stanford Medical Center in highly vaccinated Santa Clara County was treating just 20 COVID-19 patients. In Los Angeles County, UCLA had nine COVID patients and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center had 13 COVID patients.
Those counties also have stricter masking requirements in public indoor areas, with many Bay Area counties requiring proof of vaccination to sit down for meals and enter bars.
No such requirements exist in Tulare County.
Herbst said Kaweah Health is working to transfer patients to hospitals in areas of the state less impacted by COVID. No San Joaquin Valley hospitals have room to accept patients, Herbst added.
Joshua Yeager is a reporter with the Visalia Times-Delta and a Report for America corps member. He covers Tulare County news deserts with a focus on the environment and local governments.
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