FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Southern California is down to just 1.7% ICU capacity remaining [Updated: Now 0%]
Thread: Southern California is down to just 1.7% ICU capacity remaining [Updated: Now 0%]
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Old Dec 17, 2020, 11:49 am
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TWA884
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Originally Posted by azepine00
what i meant is that the bottleneck causing very low available ICU bed appears to be due to existing staffing and unlike hardware staffing has more flexibility via reassignments, traveling nurses, coverage of more beds but existing staff etc...
ICU nurses are highly trained. Currently in California the accepted ICU staffing ratio is one nurse for two ICU patients. This morning, I heard on NPR that a Fresno hospital changed the ratio to three patients per nurse (the story has yet to be transcribed). El Centro Regional Medical Center in Imperial County is also requesting permission to to increase the number of patients each ICU nurse can care for.

As of Wednesday, December 16, Southern California's total ICU bed availability dropped to just 0.5%.
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