KPC Health announced the safe reopening of its seven full-service acute care hospitals in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties Thursday, April 30, for elective non-emergent, non-COVID-19 procedures and treatments. The hospitals include Orange County Global Medical Center, Chapman Global Medical Center, Anaheim Global Medical Center, South Coast Global Medical Center, Hemet Global Medical Center, Menifee Global Medical Center and Victor Valley Global Medical Center.
Tests for COVID-19 can be hard to come by, but there are dozens of tests on the market that test for antibodies. Most antibody tests on the market got emergency usage approval and are not FDA approved, pathologists say, so the frequently produce false positives. “Maybe 60, 70% of the tests that have hit the market are unreliable,” said Dr. John Heydt of KPC Health Global. Just this week, two more antibody tests have hit the market and are considered to be much more reliable, and both are FDA approved — the Roche Test and the Abbott Labs serum serological test. Heydt says OC Global Medical Center will begin using the Abbott Labs test, which can tell patients if they’ve been exposed and when they got the infection.
KPC Health Chief Clinical Officer and CEO of Apex Medical Group Dr. John Heydt offers his expertise on the accuracy of certain antibody tests.
At Inland Empire hospitals, the struggle against the novel coronavirus pandemic is up close and personal. Doctors, nurses, medical assistants, cleaning staff, engineers retrofitting facilities to hold the virus in patients’ rooms and more are working to stop a disease that’s already killed more than 74,000 people in the United States. As the coronavirus pandemic began in the United States, nurse Lauren Baca guessed her floor of Hemet Global Medical Center would end up being the COVID-19 quarantine floor. Hospital workers spent a day converting the floor. Each room got its own antechamber to allow staff to put on or remove protective gear while treating COVID-19 patients. And the new ventilation system is loud. “We do have to sort of yell at the patients so they can hear at us and they have to yell at us back,” said Baca, 33. Like many in her field, the San Jacinto resident hopes the public stays the course with social distancing and other measures to slow the coronavirus’s spread. “I know it sucks. Believe me, I’m one of these people who would love to go and get a haircut. I’m about to cut it off myself,” Baca said. “In New York, they literally can’t give people the care they want to, because they’re so overwhelmed. I don’t want us to get to that point.” Menifee resident Dr. John Carvalho avoids leaving his house, other than going to work on the COVID-19 quarantine floor at Hemet Global Medical Center. “We’ve all had to adapt to being a thousand times more conscious about what kind of environment we’re in, what condition our gowns are in, how we’re taking them on and off,” said Carvalho, 34, one of the resident physicians on the floor. “It almost becomes a caricature of how we were trained.” He wears N95 respirator masks, along with goggles, a plastic face shield, a surgical cap and waterproof shoes. Despite all that, Carvalho limits how much time he spends in public, even when getting groceries or meals. “I can’t ever know fully how much I would be exposing other people,” he said. “We try to make one trip a week or less, order things ahead of time to just pick up or just get it delivered.”
Santa Ana-based KPC Health said it plans to open its seven Southern California hospitals, which include four local facilities in Orange, Santa Ana and Anaheim. The four produced a combined $367 million in annual net patient revenue for the year ending in September. “Like many hospitals, we have observed a significant decline in patients coming in for common health issues,” during the coronavirus pandemic, said Dr. John Heydt, KPC Health chief clinical officer, in a statement. Opening the hospitals, he suggested, will mean patients can begin to return for healthcare treatment generally; the statement noted the move is in line with state and federal reopening guidelines and regulations. KPC Health’s three other hospitals are in Hemet, Victorville and Menifee. Its system includes other facilities. The health system is part of Riverside-based KPC Group.
A 62-year-old Anaheim man was discharged from the hospital Monday after recovering from COVID-19. Donning his protective face mask, Tien Tran was wheeled out of Anaheim Global Medical Center, surrounded by cheering nurses and doctors. Tran had been on a ventilator and put into a medically induced coma for 16 days as he underwent treatment for the deadly respiratory illness. Against the odds, Tran recovered. “A second life. Like somebody just granted me a second life,” he said outside the hospital Monday. Tran was treated with Hydroxychloroquine along with other medications, Dr. George Girgis of Anaheim Global Medical Center told KTLA. The drug, typically used to treat malaria, has received attention after some studies pointed to it as a potential treatment for COVID-19 and it was touted by President Donald Trump during a White House news briefing.
Hemet’s Western Science Center makes mask clips for hospitals battling coronavirus – The Press-Enterprise
When Hemet’s Western Science Center closed its doors March 14 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the science didn’t stop. It just changed directions. The museum has four 3D printers, normally used to print exhibits, like prehistoric teeth and bones. But right now, it’s got another job. Like many other Californians, the museum staff is working from home and watching and reading the news about the battle against novel coronavirus. “One of the things we saw were medical staff wearing masks 13, 14, 16 hours a day and getting their ears rubbed raw,” said Alton Dooley, the museum’s executive director. A staff member saw that a 3D printing manufacturer had released a free model of a face mask buckle to make surgical masks more comfortable to wear for prolonged periods. “We offered them out to the Hemet hospital and see if they were interested,” Dooley said. Hemet Global Medical Center officials said they were, and the museum has provided 50 of the clips so far. Although the hospital group has managed its supplies “extremely well,” according to hospital spokesman Jeff Corless, donations from various community organizations and individuals have been appreciated. That includes the clips printed at the Western Science Center.