Kaiser says ready to meet increase of COVID cases in Solano
A hospital spokesperson responded to a Solano News Update article that painted a dire situation at its Vacaville and Vallejo campuses.
(Photo: The Kaiser Permanente office in Vacaville is pictured in a panorama captured by a Google Street View vehicle in 2019. Photo courtesy Google, Graphic by Solano News Update)
Kaiser Permanente on Friday said it was ready to handle a surge in novel coronavirus infections across its network of hospitals in Northern California, including two hospitals in Solano County.
The statement came after a Solano News Update article revealed a shortage of hospital intensive care unit (ICU) beds at Kaiser’s Vacaville and Vallejo campuses, with information about the shortage coming from data reported by state health officials as collected by a hospital advocacy group.
That data showed Kaiser Permanente had just one available ICU bed at its Vacaville hospital and 2 beds available at its Vallejo hospital. The hospital network has around 40 adult ICU beds between its two hospitals for the treatment of serious, life-threatening medical emergencies.
The state’s collection of the hospital ICU data began at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic around March of this year, but it’s come under renewed scrutiny after state health officials began using averaging the data at a regional level to determine if a county should face tougher restrictions on residents and businesses after COVID-19 cases began spiking in November.
Earlier this month, state officials rolled out a new, around-the-clock stay-at-home order that contains tougher restrictions on residents and businesses once a region’s available hospital ICU bed space drops below 15 percent. Solano County is listed in the Bay Area region where the available hospital ICU bed space was listed at 16.7 percent as of Friday afternoon, a decrease from its reported availability of around 25 percent one week ago.
In a statement received by Solano News Update on Friday, Kaiser Permanente spokesperson Michelle Gaskill-Hames confirmed hospitals across their Northern California network were seeing “an increase in COVID-19 cases, with about a third more COVID-19 cases than we saw at our previous peak in June.”
“We have maintained a continued state of readiness for additional COVID-19 cases since our initial significant surge preparations in the spring [of this year],” Gaskill-Hames said.
Among the hospital network’s preparation plans are increasing hospital capacity to deal with a 35 percent surge in cases and the flexibility of increasing regular hospital bed space by as much as 70 percent, the spokesperson said. The network also increased its staff by around 10 to 20 percent to accommodate a surge in cases during the winter months.
In addition to those plans, Kaiser Permanente said it has a strategy that involves moving ICU patients from an overwhelmed hospital within its network to one that has more space. And, if needed, Gaskill-Hames said all Kaiser Permanente hospitals have the ability to “quickly increase treatment space by converting existing space and adding equipment.”
Kaiser Permanente didn’t say if this was taking place at either its Vacaville or Vallejo hospitals, but it did dispute the data reported by state health officials this week, saying its hospital ICU capacity was only around 40 percent full and that the total ICU bed space in Vacaville as reported by a health consumer advocacy group was off by four beds.
“Our command centers continue to monitor the situation carefully to ensure we have the resources, capacity and staff available to care for the rapidly-increasing number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients while also maintaining access to healthcare services for our members and the communities we serve,” Gaskill-Hames affirmed.
But one Vallejo nurse who spoke with Solano News Update on background said the situation at Kaiser Permanente is more chaotic than what they’re revealing.
“You can’t adequately prepare for something like this,” the nurse, who spoke with Solano News Update on condition of anonymity, said in an interview on Friday. “We always see an influx of cases in the winter because people drive more, they bake more, a lot of people come down with the flu. Those things you can plan for, because we see it every year, but COVID-19 is a different beast.”
The nurse said Kaiser Permanente has responded to an increase in emergency room visits and hospitalizations by demanding staff work longer hours, including double shifts.
“We’re tired,” the nurse said.
We’re proud to produce independent news for Solano County. This newsletter is an all-volunteer effort. If you would like to show your appreciation, consider making a donation in any amount or converting your email subscription into a paid one. Discuss this newsletter and other stories from across Solano County on our Facebook group here and follow our new Twitter account here.