Some Riverside County hospitals have received a jump of coronavirus patients from Imperial County, where there are only two hospitals.
According to Bruce Barton, director of the Riverside County Emergency Management Department (EMD), 51 patients were transferred from Imperial County hospitals and another 12 from Imperial County who walked into Riverside County hospitals recently. The two Imperial County hospitals have reached their capacity of coronavirus patients, so it was decided to transfer them to neighboring counties, Barton stated in a county news release.
“Riverside County and Imperial County have a long history of working together on the Salton Sea, agriculture, education, and we are partners in the fight against this pandemic,” said Riverside County Board Chair and Fourth District Supervisor V. Manuel Perez. “It is fortunate that we have the hospital space to assist our neighbors in Imperial County. It shows how important these hospital beds are and how we need to keep our hospital space available for surges that could come.”
Barton said the capacity of the county hospital system has been impacted by the Imperial County transfers, but the increase remains within the capacity of the health system. EMD along with hospital, other county and state officials are closely monitoring the situation.
“The goal of the State’s regional distribution plan is to assure these patients receive needed care and are appropriately distributed across Southern California hospitals so that no single County is disproportionately impacted,” said Barton.
Hospitals throughout Riverside County received the Imperial County patients. Other hospitals in neighboring counties have also received patients. As of May 27, were 207 coronavirus patients in Riverside County, including 68 in ICU. There have been 7,252 confirmed cases and 306 coronavirus deaths in Riverside County. Updates are posted Monday through Friday at www.rivcoph.org/coronavirus.
