SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — With Southern California's ICU capacity now at only 1.7 percent, hospitals across the region are bracing for a flood of patients. State leaders said their top challenge right now is finding enough staff to care for them.
Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday that California currently needs roughly 3,000 additional temporary medical workers, but has hired only 10 percent of that number so far.
"We are going through the most challenging and difficult surge we've experienced since the beginning of this pandemic," Newsom warned.
The biggest challenge, he added, is finding enough trained health professionals to care for the surge of patients expected in the coming weeks.
"Bringing on additional staff: that is goal number one," said California Health Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. "We are not as concerned right now with running out of space or supplies."
To address this staffing crunch, state leaders are taking proactive steps, including shortening the time recommended to quarantine for health care workers exposed to COVID-19 from 10 days now to only seven days, provided they test negative on day five or later.
Another more controversial move: the state has issued a waiver to adjust nurse-to-patient ratios from 1:2 now to 1:3 to help with staffing in intensive-care units.
While this is a move that some local nurses in San Diego County recently protested, state leaders caution this move is not a permanent one.
"We need to temporarily, very temporarily, look a little different in terms of staffing needs," Newsom said.
The state also currently has 186 medical staff members from the California National Guard and California Medical Assistance Teams (CMAT), along with requests to the federal government for more medical personnel.
Typically, staffing shortages like this would be addressed through "traveling nurse" registries.
"Those registries are now being used throughout the nation," Ghaly explained. "We are only getting a small percentage. Usually we get close to 100% of our requests, but now we are lucky to get two thirds."
"We are actually looking at overseas interestingly," Newsom added, "to potentially recruit some staffing."
The governor also renewed his call for recently retired nurses and doctors to join California Health Corps.
While thousands originally signed up, only 21 are currently working to address the COVID-19 surge. For more information on joining the California Health Corps, just click here.