As I write this our
hospitals are increasingly busy. With COVID-19 in our community, our emergency
medicine physicians, intensivists, and infectious disease specialists are
seeing a daily increase in the number of patients with symptoms that require
assessment and in some cases testing, admission, and intensive care. For those
dedicated to health care, this is the professional challenge of our lives.
Throughout our community,
physicians, nurses, therapists, technologists and other frontline caregivers
are the heroes of our day, along with the professionals who provide social and
other support to patients, those who clean and disinfect rooms and equipment,
and the many others working to support our frontline staff to ensure they have
the tools and the protection they need. I can tell you from talking with the
care teams working 24/7, they are incredible health care professionals and
incredible people. Speaking with hospital staff today, I heard, “This is what I
signed up for,” and “It’s what I do.” Our community is extremely fortunate to
have these dedicated health professionals.
While we are certainly
seeing an increase in those with serious respiratory illness, and we are
treating patients with COVID-19, we do not know what the future days and weeks
will bring. In other parts of the country, we are witnessing patient demand
that is taxing health care systems to their limits, and in some cases, well beyond.
Collaborative efforts are underway with Santa Barbara County Public Health,
Sansum Clinic, Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, and area hospitals. Much of
our situation will depend on the collective community effort to self-isolate,
observe social distancing and slow the spread of the virus.