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.
Since January, Cottage
Health has had daily meetings of medical, nursing, and other clinical and
support leadership to prepare for the arrival of this coronavirus in our
community. We work to address projected supply shortages, surge planning,
staffing, and how to protect our patients, employees, physicians and community.
In anticipation of supply
shortages across the United States, preparations began at our hospitals in
early January, but many routine supply orders placed in January have yet to
arrive. Global demand overwhelmed the limited supplies being manufactured by some
of our reliable vendors.
Cottage is working hard to
maintain supplies of protective equipment for our healthcare workers on the
frontlines. Every day we have teams working through alternate supply chain
options and finding ways to get needed supplies to our hospitals. However, with
an increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the community, and the protective
equipment required to provide isolation care, we’ve gone from typical usage
rate of about 25 masks per day to a current use of more than 500 masks a day.
We expect that rate to significantly increase. We currently have approximately
37,400 N95 masks, and we are working to get more. We have a consistent supply
of gloves, more than 800,000 currently in our stock, and a steady supply chain
for those. In addition to neonatal ventilators, we have 39 adult and pediatric
ventilators at our hospitals, with another 21 on order.
We welcome and are grateful to the many community members and organizations who have offered to donate medical supplies. Areas where we anticipate supply challenges are medical goggles, face shields, protective masks, and isolation gowns.
On Tuesday, March 24 we will
open a drive-through collection center for medical supply donations. The drop-off location will
be in the parking area adjacent to Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital at 351 South
Patterson Avenue. Drop off hours will be 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. until further notice.
Supplies being accepted include:
- Faces shields – single
use or non-disposable - Eye shields – single use
or non-disposable - Isolation Gowns or
Standard level 3 gowns - N95 Masks
- N99 Masks
- Standard Procedure Masks
For inquiries on supplies or other donations not listed above, please contact David Dietrich, Cottage Health Vice President for Advancement at ddietric@sbch.org or (805) 569-7345.
State and local public
health officials have had to make very difficult decisions in the past week. It
has become necessary for our hospitals to restrict visitors. We know this is a
hardship and places an emotional toll on families and patients. It’s not what
we would ever do in more normal times, and we’re doing everything we can to
make this situation more bearable and keep our patients, healthcare workers and
community safe.
We are also screening every
physician and employee entering the hospitals to provide further protection.
With support from the medical community, we are also postponing elective
surgical and procedural cases other than those for which delays would
compromise an individual’s long-term health.
We have prepared specialized
units at the hospital with dedicated staff trained and equipped to safely and
effectively manage patients admitted with symptoms of COVID-19. Cottage Health
is fortunate to have extremely knowledgeable and dedicated nurses, infectious
disease physicians, intensivists, emergency medicine and other specialists on
staff, and an Infection Prevention & Control Department that supports the
work of our clinical teams. We are here to provide safe care if you need it. If
you don’t need medical care, please stay home and help others stay healthy.
Getting fast and adequate
testing for this virus has been a serious challenge locally and across the US.
In order to assure the best use of very limited testing capacity for COVID-19,
the health-care providers in Santa Barbara County have collaborated to
prioritize testing for those most at risk and in need. Together, partners
across our county, public and private, are working hard to find solutions that
will serve our community. We applaud the efforts of Sansum Clinic and Santa
Barbara Neighborhood Clinics to provide testing on a limited basis for those
meeting approved criteria. We cannot yet confirm when broad community testing
capability will be available but will share updates when we are confident that
reliable testing systems are in place.
The situation with COVID-19
is changing rapidly with new developments coming day by day, hour by hour. For
everyone in our community and our country, our lives have changed dramatically
in the past few weeks. We will provide hospital updates as the situation
evolves. Our absolute top priority is the safety of patients and health-care
workers in the hospitals.
On behalf of all the health-care
workers on the frontlines of fighting this virus, I ask for the community’s
support. We need you now more than ever to stand with us in safeguarding the
health of this community.
Thank you for your
support of our community, of one another, and of our health care professionals.