Valley hospitals call S.O.S. amid pandemic surge that is pushing ERs to 'disaster levels'

San Joaquin Valley hospitals sounded the alarm over an ongoing coronavirus surge that has overwhelmed healthcare workers and pushed local emergency rooms "close to disaster levels."

Nine hospitals, including Visalia's Kaweah Health, published the unified alert on social media. The post includes a video with a stark S.O.S. message warning that the "COVID-19 burden on our hospitals is greater than ever before."

The message pleads with residents to get a COVID-19 vaccine and booster shot in order to curb the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant, which has caused Tulare County's positivity rate to skyrocket from 4% to nearly 20% in just two weeks.

"We are signaling for your help. Please get your vaccine and your booster," the hospitals' message states.

As of Sunday, Kaweah was treating 73 COVID-19 patients, eight of whom were in the ICU. The hospital was at 98% capacity. While that's fewer patients than the grim heights reached during the crest of last year's delta surge, hospital officials are concerned by the omicron variant's high transmission rate.

"While the number of inpatient COVID [patients] isn’t as high as last year, we are experiencing a higher number of staff leaves due to the virus, and at an alarmingly rapid rate," Laura Florez-McCusker, hospital spokesperson, said in an email. "In just one week, our number of staff leaves increased by 250%.

"The number of staff unable to work due to a positive COVID test created challenges and shortcomings in inpatient staffing."

There are nearly 250 Kaweah employees on coronavirus leave at the same time that hospital admissions are beginning to climb, straining the hospital from both ends. Kaweah also recently broke a record for emergency department patients treated, Florez-McCusker said.

"The disaster is the high volumes of all patients paired with high volumes of people on leave," said Keri Noeske, the hospital's Chief Nursing Officer. "We are able to provide care, it just takes longer with fewer resources."

On Friday, Sierra View Medical Center in Porterville announced its ICU was full. The eastern Tulare County hospital was treating 21 COVID-19 patients.

“Seeing the surge of the Omicron and Delta variants hitting our hospital and health care systems, we are at capacity. Our ICU is beyond capacity and this is the time that we really need people to focus on getting their booster if they haven’t already done so to avoid hospitalization,” Dr. Jeffery Hudson-Covolo, the hospital's chief nursing officer, said in a news release.

Beyond vaccines and booster shots, the S.O.S. encourages people to do the following to help ease the burden on Valley hospitals:

• Keep wearing your mask.

• Practice social distancing.

• Encourage others to do the same.

Besides Kaweah and Sierra View, the message was cosigned by Community Health System, UCSF Fresno, Madera Community Hospital, Saint Agnes Medical Center, San Joaquin Valley Rehabilitation Hospital, Healthy Fresno County, and Valley Children's

Joshua Yeager is a reporter with the Visalia Times-Delta and a Report for America corps member. He covers Tulare County news deserts with a focus on the environment and local governments.

Follow him on Twitter @VTD_Joshy. Get alerts and keep up on all things Tulare County for as little as $1 a month. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Valley hospitals call S.O.S. amid pandemic surge