Frequently Asked Questions
Community Engagement Virtual Meeting
Community Engagement Virtual Meeting - Thursday, April 16
Question #1: How many positive COVID-19 cases are in Tulare County? How many people
have died from COVID-19 in Tulare County? How many have recovered? How
many COVID-19 positive patients are at Kaweah Delta? How many people has
Kaweah Delta collected specimens from for COVID-19 testing?- Watch Video
- As of April 16, there have been 372 positive cases of COVID-19 in Tulare
County. Of those, 17 have died and 22 people have recovered. As of April
16, Kaweah Delta Medical Center is caring for 23 patients who have tested
positive for COVID-19. As of April 16, Kaweah Delta has collected 1,977
specimens. Of those, 173 have tested positive for COVID-19, 1,676 have
tested negative and test results are pending for 128 patients.
Question #2: What is Kaweah Delta doing to help Redwood Springs? -
Watch Video
- Since concerns surfaced last week that state and local health officials
might close the Visalia nursing facility due to a lack of staffing, Kaweah
Delta, along with Sierra View and Adventist Health Tulare, provided immediate
staffing assistance over the weekend. Kaweah Delta nursing staff also
provided assistance on Monday and Wednesday. Kaweah Delta has compiled
a list of approximately 25 Registered Nurses, Licensed Vocational Nurses,
Certified Nursing Assistants, Medical Assistants, etc. who are ready and
willing to help care for patients at Redwood Springs, if needed. Additionally,
Kaweah Delta has also provided technical support, personal protective
equipment, and Kaweah Delta’s recently retired Director of Nursing
Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Services has come out of retirement
to provider leadership support to Redwood Springs.
Questions #3: In light of the new outbreak at Lindsay Gardens, what is Kaweah Delta
doing to keep its skilled nursing patients safe?
- Watch Video
- To date, Kaweah Delta has not had a patient in its skilled nursing program
contract COVID-19. Kaweah Delta put the facility where its skilled nursing
program operates on lock down almost immediately, instituting a no-visitor
policy. Only patients who are near death may have a visitor. Additionally,
Kaweah Delta screens its employees there daily when they arrive to work
and whenever they return to the facility throughout the day. This includes
taking temperatures and checking for symptoms of COVID-19. Employees with
symptoms may not enter the building and must quarantine themselves. Two
weeks ago, Kaweah Delta mandated that all employees wear a facemask at
work. Employees are asked to practice social distancing, perform regular
and proper hand hygiene, and constantly disinfect surfaces.
Question #4: Should we as a community wear gloves when out in public?- Watch Video
- In the hospital setting are our clinicians wear gloves all the time. They're
doing that to protect themselves when they're touching fluids, blood,
and urine. But they also wash their hands really well then they put on
their gloves to prevent infection for our patients. In public, wearing
gloves could provide some protection but then you have to remember what
you are touching. If you touch your face, even with those gloves, you
potentially have taken something that was contaminated and touched your
face and so that glove didn't protect you from that standpoint. If
in public, the best idea is to clean your hands and carry a hand sanitizer
your car. Do not touch your face, and when you get home, wash your hands
with soap and water.
Question #5: Can you share information about the plasma anti-virus anti-body testing?- Watch Video
- As of April 13, there is not a FDA-approved treatment option. Medical papers
have been shared on the different medication approaches that are being
considered, like hydroxychloroquine with the Azithromycin and other types
of medications. The FDA is playing a very prominent role working with
private companies across the country to help facilitate the development
of and the access to therapy. Treatments also being studied are antibody
plasma from COVID-19 recovered patients. Local trials are being studied
in the Central Valley. Additionally, we are also reviewing research development
of stem-cell therapy that it would be specifically targeted to the lungs
and respiratory related conditions. When a patient seems to have recovered,
we give them two COVID-19 tests, 24 hours apart, and if both tests come
back negative, patients are transferred to a lower level care.
Question #6: Is Kaweah Delta’s in-house COVID-19 testing ready?
- Watch Video
- Yes. Kaweah Delta now has the ability to collect a specimen from any patient
inside its Medical Center and test it for COVID-19. Results are available
in minutes without having to send specimens to Tulare County Public Health
Laboratory. This allows Kaweah Delta to do testing of any employee, physician
or resident, who may exhibit symptoms of COVID-19. Additionally, Kaweah
Delta can determine whether someone who came to the Emergency Department,
but needs to be admitted to the hospital has COVID-19 prior to admission.
Question #7: If Kaweah Delta is doing its own testing, will results be sent to Tulare
County first and then allow the County to release information before Kaweah Delta?- Watch Video
- Kaweah Delta does send all in-house testing results to Tulare County. We
want them to have a comprehensive profile of the county and they are probably
required to report it to the CDC and the State. Additionally, if the patient
has been admitted, we share the information directly with the patient
and the attending physician. When it comes to our employees, physicians,
or residents, all testing and results are provided directly to them by
our employee health department.
Question #8: Please share information about hospital beds moved from Fresno County.
Does Kaweah Delta have hospital beds ready to be used at the Visalia Convention Center?- Watch Video
- Fresno Count was planning a large temporary hospital at the Fresno Fairgrounds,
but then an assessment was done of the resources that are available in
Fresno County and it was determined that they would not build a staff
adequately to accommodate 350 beds. Because of the shortage of physicians
that we have in the valley, a hundred of those beds were removed and redistributed.
The Porterville Development Center in Porterville was designated by the
State of California to be an alternative care site. The State is working
to bring that facility up to an operational level and we've been told
there'll be 250 beds that will be located at that Center and it will
be staffed by personnel from the State. The facility will only be used
in the event that the hospitals in this county are not able to support
the demands of the community. Developing these alternative care sites
is usually something that's handled by the local health department
in coordination with the California Department of Public Health and the
State. Kaweah Delta is working with the County through a task force and
looking for all other alternative care sites that could be converted into
temporary hospital beds if necessary.
Video Clip #9: Comments from Pulmonologist Dr. William R. Winn of Visalia, California- Watch Video
Question #10: Is it true that the current COVID-19 quick test only operates at 60% of
the sensitive needed to determine if a patient is positive - If result
is positive, results are 100% correct, but if the result is negative,
there is a 40% chance that the patient may still have COVID-19?- Watch Video
- Dr. David Hewitt, Kaweah Delta's medical director of clinical laboratory
and Randall Kokka, director of laboratory services, have shared that so
much of the accuracy of the testing is dependent on the quality of the
specimen collected. If you're doing more of a casual swab of the nose
and not really collecting the specimen needed, then you could have a false
positive or a false negative. We have heard a reference to a 70% sensitivity
or accuracy, but if you collect a high-quality specimen and go way up
into your nasal cavities, both sides, the sensitivity is as high as 95%.
We have highly-trained nurses and nurse practitioners that know how to
do a good swab. There's no evidence the actual Abbot analyzer, platform
and test itself has that low of sensitivity, but actually has a very high
sensitivity.
Question #11: The community needs to be aware of the local situation as it relates to
COVID-19. What efforts will be made to tell the public that social distancing
will be needed until the peak or beyond?- Watch Video
-
It's one thing if it is just you, you decide your own life, but when
your actions are putting other people's lives in dangers, to me it's
just so irresponsible. I do get on people if I'm out, I will encourage
them nicely. It continues to be our message in these sessions with our
community engagement people who are doing a phenomenal job with social
distancing. Also, we take our 5,000 employees and we make them ambassadors
and they go out in to the community and preach the word. We are out there
communicating and it's been wonderful to see the community taking
advantage of all the information that we're making available on our
website and on social media. We take every opportunity we can - again
it's social distancing, washing your hands, and don't touch your face.
Community Engagement Virtual Meeting - Thursday, April 16
Question #1: How many positive COVID-19 cases are in Tulare County? How many people
have died from COVID-19 in Tulare County? How many have recovered? How
many COVID-19 positive patients are at Kaweah Delta? How many people has
Kaweah Delta collected specimens from for COVID-19 testing?
Question #2: What is Kaweah Delta doing to help Redwood Springs?
Questions #3: In light of the new outbreak at Lindsay Gardens, what is Kaweah Delta
doing to keep its skilled nursing patients safe?
Question #4: Should we as a community wear gloves when out in public?
Question #5: Can you share information about the plasma anti-virus anti-body testing?
Question #6: Is Kaweah Delta’s in-house COVID-19 testing ready?
Question #7: If Kaweah Delta is doing its own testing, will results be sent to Tulare
County first and then allow the County to release information before Kaweah Delta?
Question #8: Please share information about hospital beds moved from Fresno County.
Does Kaweah Delta have hospital beds ready to be used at the Visalia Convention Center?
Video Clip #9: Comments from Pulmonologist Dr. William R. Winn of Visalia, California
Question #10: Is it true that the current COVID-19 quick test only operates at 60% of
the sensitive needed to determine if a patient is positive - If result
is positive, results are 100% correct, but if the result is negative,
there is a 40% chance that the patient may still have COVID-19.
Question #11: The community needs to be aware of the local situation as it relates to
COVID-19. What efforts will be made to tell the public that social distancing
will be needed until the peak or beyond?