Hospital leaders in California are concerned red tape is causing extra bottlenecks for doctors and nurses trying to treat the sickest COVID-19 patients.
They’re calling for more regulations to be set aside during the current crisis.
Previous surges saw a rise and fall in the numbers of COVID-19 patients, according to Carmela Coyle, President of the California Hospital Association.
Now, she said, there’s only a rise.
"We have ambulances continuing to flow into hospitals dropping patients off in acute care need and yet we have challenges in discharging patients to other parts of the health care system," Coyle told KCBS Radio.
She said restrictions from early in the pandemic when less was known about how the disease spreads are preventing patients from being transferred into skilled nursing facilities.
That’s problem number one.
"Problem number two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10 is staff, staff, staff," she added.
In previous surges, they called on travel nurses.
"Not only are we peaking, and let me be clear the size of this surge is five times anything we experienced in our previous surge, but those travel nurses are simply not available," Coyle explained. "They’re in other parts of the United States that have also been surging."
She expects the worst is still to come this month - and possibly into February.
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