Frequently Asked Questions

CURRENT NUMBERS?

Positive cases in County
9,885

Positive cases in hospital Today
74 patients in house. ICU has 10 patients, 16 in ICCU, M/S has 47 patients, then one positive in M/B. 3,070 positive tests by KDH since March. Hospital changes daily, recent average about 65. Was as high as 91.

Deaths in County
193

Recovered Cases
7,025 in the county

Positive Employees
282 (doubled in July); 189 recovered, 93 on LOA, 6 of which are hospitalized

Positivity Rate
County is at 16.7%

Hospital Census
291 census this morning, ICU 32 of 41 beds filled

**https://covid19.tularecounty.ca.gov/

TESTING

Are we seeing any relief regarding testing result timeframes?
No, it is probably a little worse with commercial being close to three weeks in some instances. As we work to increase our KD testing ability we will send fewer out to commercial labs. The supply is so unstable and unpredictable at this time across the County. County turnaround is 48 hours, Kaweah Delta is 24 hours, and commercial labs are up to three weeks. Why? Chances are it is a staffing shortage and facilities do not have enough scientists to run the analyzers.

One area of concern regarding testing has been in our rural communities. There have been a lot of local news stories on this recently Can you explain what KD is doing right now to work with those areas? Even if we make testing more accessible, will the County be able to keep up with the demands of running those specimens?
Quidel testing with at our three KDH clinics in Lindsay, Exeter, and Dinuba should be available within the next 4-6 weeks. We will be able to complete more tests in house and support the county volumes. The county has been working extremely hard to increase their ability to test and meet the growing demands.

During last week’s town hall, there were several community members who were confused about the retesting and the CDC’s guidelines that do not require a negative test for employees to go back to work.Can you clarify those guidelines and why are other organizations requiring their employees to have negative tests if the hospital isn’t?

There are three options for recovery: test with negatives (PCR can sense dead virus), no more symptoms, enough time has gone by. Kaweah Delta has gone with symptom or time-based strategy to allow people to get back to work.

MEDICATIONS

Gary mentioned last week that our supply of Remdesivir is low.Has that changed?Should we be concerned that our hospital will run out of the drug?
We are using Remdesivir and Prednisone or Methylprenisolone. We have access to those drugs and have patients that have had good outcomes. Last week we were low on Remdesivir, but this week we received our shipment and are good for now. It is given by the federal government and we never know when we will be given more. The drug is one part of a group of interventions used for COVID - and they have all shown benefit. The allocation from the federal government is based on need. We do have enough Remdesivir supply to meet the needs for inpatients right now. Patients who have recovered from COVID have the antibody so blood banks are able to take the antibodies and use that blood to fight COVID infections and we give that to patients in the ICU. Plasma is in short supply.

SURGE PLANS

Gary has talked often about Kaweah Delta’s surge plans and has gone into detail about the areas we have restricted for COVID.Have we moved COVID positive patient from our downtown facility?If so, where have we moved them to?
Yes, we moved the first COVID patient to the Porterville Developmental Center on Monday. Our West Campus has a COVID care unit. Three of the skilled nursing facilities in the county have started accepting COVID positive patients. We have not had to set up acute care services at an alternate site yet. We have not sent anyone to South Campus yet.

Do those who have COVID and are taken to REHAB have to qualify for rehab?
No, we can send any patient to Rehab who has COVID. The patients we have sent there do actually qualify but we can send any patient there.

Is Kaweah Delta experiencing an outbreak?
An outbreak is 11 or more patients. Not yet.

How is Sierra View Hospital doing?
Their numbers were high they had to convert conference rooms and we were ready to help. We are in conversations daily to help if needed. We are still accepting transfers in.

Didn’t Sequoia Rehab in Porterville have an outbreak?
They did a while back but if it was recently, we don’t know about it. They have been working through COVID in their building. Redwood Springs has been working hard and has been designated by the State to take COVID positive patients.

Do we partner at all with Community Regional at all?
We collaborate with leaders and through the California Association. They did call and ask about our PPE use.

STAFF

What is the best way the community can support the front line staff working hard right now?
Units love reading cards and posters of support, they always love food (individually packaged), hand-made masks and hair bonnets are always coveted. Also encourage physical distancing and wearing masks with your family and friends. This definitely will help keep census under control and keep the community healthy. If you know a health care worker, reach out to check on them and tell them thank you. Those words of encouragement go a long way.

How is leadership helping staff members that are experiencing virus fatigue?How is leadership dealing with virus fatigue?
Encouraging short periods of time off. Resiliency quotes. Frequent rounding and listening. Regular group calls with Q/A opportunities. Regular communication to decrease issues with rapid change. Working more on recruitment and hiring to increase staffing.

Can you give us a summary of the Military Personnel that are here?
They are hopefully staying. We requested an extension of the DOD as they do 30-day increments. We are waiting for the official contract to be signed to keep the 21 employees they sent.

Are we doing grief counseling?
We have our Chaplains group who are trained in grief counseling. We have access to counseling as well through our employee benefits. If people ask for help of course we will help them. Managers spend a lot of one-on-one time listening, helping, and answering questions.

What would KDH be at as far as total adult beds available say the first week of August in a normal year?
Complicated answer; typically we are at 80-85% capacity through August.

How many total tests have been done at Kaweah Delta?

Over 23,000

There was a ABC 30 news story earlier this week that our State and County are reporting figures lower than what they should be.Are you aware of this story and is there any truth to it?

https://abc30.com/health/technical-issue-causing-ca-to-under-report-covid-19-cases-/6354537/

We can bring this question back next week for a more definitive answer.

How many patients placed in ICU on a ventilator have recovered and been
released? The rumor is that all ICU patients have died.

Some patients pass away after having been in the ICU on a ventilator, but definitely, and thankfully, not all patients. Many patients do come off the ventilator and recover. We will work on getting specific numbers to you for next week. It is valuable to have concrete numbers so we will work on that.

Can we get COVID only information?

People who are healthy and don’t need to take meds for other diagnosis, usually have an easier time fighting off COVID if they get it. If a person has a comorbidity such as diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, on dialysis, COVID will make that comorbidity worse. A person normally does not die from COVID only, they die from the complications that COVID adds to their other conditions.