Rapidly spreading wildfires are not only upending the lives of tens of thousands of Los Angeles County residents and business owners, but also stressing area hospitals, clinics, first responders, and nursing homes.
At least one clinic was burnt down. Elderly patients were evacuated by ambulance from a nursing home as embers swirled around them and their health care providers. Medical facilities were closed and routine appointments were canceled. Because some health care providers have lost their homes or had to evacuate their neighborhoods, they are often unable to work, and some medical centers are having difficulty maintaining sufficient staffing. It has become.
Amidst the chaos, doctors, nurses and other caregivers did their jobs.
On Tuesday night, Dr. Ravi Sarzia, an oncologist at City of Hope Duarte Cancer Center, saw the house above his Eaton Canyon home go up in flames. He, his wife and eldest daughter estimated they had less than seven minutes to escape as debris and sparks rained down. In the middle of the night, Sarzia received a call that the hospital had become an emergency command center and there was a risk of evacuation. This meant I had to help evaluate patients and prepare them for discharge.
Sarzia arrived at the hospital at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. He was joined by colleagues, many of whom had also been evacuated from their homes.
“We all felt very strongly that we needed to take care of our patients. No matter what was happening to us physically, mentally, no matter what was happening at home, we We need to make sure that the people we serve are taken care of,” Sarzia said in an interview.
He doesn’t know if his house is still standing.
In the Pacific Palisades, St. John’s Physicians, a primary care and pediatric clinic affiliated with Providence Health & Services, will be operating St.・Partners is said to have burned down.
Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, one of the group’s main L.A.-area hospitals, not far from the eastern edge of the Palisades fire, was on the verge of being evacuated, prompting staff to move around the area to find space for patients. I called another hospital. Mr. Eidem said he would be expelled. USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale faced the possibility of evacuation, as did other hospitals in the area.
“All hospitals in the vicinity of the fire remain on high alert and are ready to evacuate if the situation worsens,” the hospital association said. the Southern California man said in a statement. The association added: “The fire has caused major operational difficulties.”
The association also said road closures were hampering the transport of patients, supplies and health workers, while the high number of calls was straining emergency services. The association said some health facilities were experiencing power outages, while “many staff have been directly affected by the evacuation and fire disruption, further complicating operations.” .
The California Department of Managed Care on Thursday ordered a health care plan to ensure enrollees affected by the wildfires receive all necessary health care services, including prescription drug refills.
Eidem said some doctors and health care workers at Providence St. John’s in Santa Monica and Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley have lost their homes or been evacuated and will be away from work. He said ensuring adequate staffing is a challenge.
Hospitals in the county said they treated patients in emergency rooms for burns, smoke inhalation and eye irritation.
More than 700 people, and likely many more, have been evacuated from nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to the California Department of Public Health.
The West Valley Health Center, operated by the Los Angeles County Health Department, was closed Wednesday due to a power outage, the department said. And UCLA Health said the closure of some of its clinics in Pasadena and Los Angeles’ West Side was due in part to a “utility power outage.”
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles announced that its two specialty care clinics in Encino and Santa Monica were closed Thursday “due to the effects of the storm, power outages and wildfires.”
Providence also closed several clinics this week.
Two major fires, the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire on the East Side, burned in the dry coastal hills of western Los Angeles County, scorching more than 50 square miles, destroying thousands of structures and destroying beloved cultural sites. At least 10 people were killed and the landmark was reduced to ashes. Many people were injured, many more seriously.
The huge winds that caused Tuesday and Wednesday’s fire explosions are starting to subside, but significant gusts are still expected to complicate firefighters’ tasks in the coming days.
Routine medical care could be disrupted for thousands of people in the coming days.
Kaiser Permanente, a major HMO and healthcare provider, announced Thursday that it had closed multiple medical facilities, including pharmacies, laboratories and eye clinics, due to fires.
Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, near the Eaton fire, announced that some of its outpatient clinics were under evacuation orders and affected by heavy smoke.
Dignity Health, another large health system, said some of its hospitals were operating on generators due to strong winds and some hospitals, including Glendale Memorial Hospital, canceled elective surgeries. Other hospitals, including University of Southern California Verdugo Hills Hospital and Providence St. John’s Hospital, have temporarily suspended non-urgent surgeries due to wildfire impacts.
Registered nurse Christine Kames was evacuated from her home in Santa Monica on Wednesday night and is staying in a hotel an hour away. But she said she feels strongly that she needs to put in the work.
“We obviously need a lot of help,” Kilms said. “And that’s important to me because I have the skills to be able to help. It’s times like this where community is most powerful.”
Chaseedaw Giles and Tarena Lofton contributed to this report.
This article was produced by KFF Health News. KFF Health News is a national newsroom producing in-depth journalism on health issues, one of KFF’s core operating programs, and an independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism. KFF Health News is the publisher of California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
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