Ambulance Wait Times of 17 Hours Reported in LA County

Soumya Karlamangla, Hayley Smith, Rong-Gong Lin II Los Angeles Times (MCT) At a hospital near South Los Angeles, doctors debate whether an elderly patient should be hooked to one of the few remaining ventilators. Meanwhile, nurses at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood fear they are treating too many patients to provide them all with the best care. And for emergency medical technicians, racing the sick to hospitals has become an obstacle course, with not enough beds for the hundreds of patients in need. Once an ambulance that has responded to a 911 call finds a hospital, it can take up to 17 hours to offload the patient. These are dark days for Los Angeles County doctors, nurses and EMTs, marked by levels of death once unimaginable in the United States, despite tireless efforts to treat patients. “It’s a war zone,” said one doctor at an L.A. County public hospital. “The way most people leave is by dying.” But amid the exhaustion and anguish of the last several weeks is something worse: fear that the next few weeks will be even more dire. Another COVID-19 surge, fueled by the recent holidays, is beginning to swell, and the looming question is how big an uptick hospitals will face. Officials say even small increases in demand could trigger grim measures that would further compromise care. Already, so many people are dying in L.A. County that hospital morgues and funeral...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Coronavirus News News Feed Ambulance California EMS Paramedic Source Type: news