Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Director Cathy Chidester has seen a lot during the 14 years she has spent at the county agency’s helm. But this winter’s COVID-19 surge topped the list.

Click here or below for an audio podcast supplement to the text interview.

Members of the public likely cannot grasp the severity of the conditions faced by patients, paramedics and hospital professionals this winter.

But while the surge was severe, the region’s hospitals never implemented “crisis standards of care” that would have forced doctors and hospitals to make life-and-death triage choices. 

Thanks to her connections with hospitals, first-responders, and area media, Chidester played a lead role in communication, sending up-to-the-minute information to hospital managers and others.

Today’s In the Spotlight interview is more than 1,500 words in length. HASC Briefs is running it in full (via a link below) to share Chidester’s unique view of the region’s surge response.

An audio podcast supplement to the text interview is available here.

This week’s interview is part of In the Spotlight — a HASC series profiling people connected to the association pursuing innovative, impactful work in their communities.

How close did the region come to “crisis standards of care?” 

I consistently felt that we were always a step ahead of the significant issues that arose during the November – January surge. Through our weekly calls with hospital executives, I felt that we understood how impacted the hospitals were. As the number of hospitalized COVID-positive patients increased, several hospitals were on the verge of implementing crisis care due to personnel shortage (illness or quarantine due to COVID), medical oxygen issues (delivery capacity limitations and lack of portable tanks), ventilator, and high flow oxygen equipment shortage, and limited bed availability. These issues impacted emergency departments’ ability to offload ambulance patients and led to significant wait times before ambulances could transfer care to the ED.

It is very difficult for us to think of hospitals having to implement “crisis care” in the United States. The public certainly is not able to accept the concept. This idea was validated when the EMS Agency issued directives like limiting the use of oxygen…

Click here for the rest of the interview.

Contact HASC Publications Director Erik Skindrud with comments or ideas for future In the Spotlight interviews. 

Contact:
Erik Skindrud
(714) 397-4260
eskindrud@hasc.org