ENCINITAS, Calif — At a breaking point, critical care specialist Dr. Scott Eisman says close to two-thirds of the entire population in his hospital is COVID positive.
"It's just extraordinarily explosive and dangerous right now," Dr. Eisman said.
Eisman is on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19 at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas. He says COVID-19 cases have spiked so intensely in the last few weeks that there haven't been any signs of stopping.
"It's the opposite, it's been increasing very rapidly, and the severity as well is also very rapid, the impact it has on other patients who don't have COVID and their ability to get care is profound,” Eisman said.
And not just in the South Bay of San Diego County, the North has also seen a severe surge. Dr. Eisman says the Scripps ICU in Encinitas is running at 183 percent of its normal licensed beds.
"Nobody has been spared, it's been like this in Los Angeles, it's like this in South County and Imperial County. It's a crisis everywhere, and some places, it's more a crisis than others, but it's a crisis everywhere,” Eisman said.
Even with a vaccine out, he says the calls for social distancing, hand washing, mask-wearing and no large gatherings, can't be ignored.
"Everybody has got to do that because it has gotten to a point where we are pushing the limits."
But what about the impact that recent busy holiday travel could have on hospitals already overloaded?
"Scripps Health has hired a lot of new nurses and staff and respiratory therapists to make sure we are prepared for this,” Eisman said.
As for the UK strain of coronavirus, which is said to be more infectious, Dr. Eisman says it comes at an already challenging time saying “it is one more thing among an already extremely bad situation."
A member of the Scripps healthcare system since 1986, Dr. Eisman says the pandemic packed cases in ICU's is unlike anything he's ever seen.
"We feel for our patients, and we don't want to see this become something that is even worse than it already is,” Dr. Eisman said.
