Military, Federal Medical Personnel Arrive To Help With COVID-19 Response Efforts
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The cavalry has arrived to help overwhelmed hospitals care for the growing number of COVID-19 patients.
The military's doctors, nurses and healthcare personnel has boots on the ground Friday after being deployed to healthcare facilities across the state. According to the state's Office of Emergency Services, a total of 1,748 personnel from different federal and military agencies are now assisting in the COVID-19 response efforts.
Most of those personnel are contracted staff, but also includes 114 from the Department of Defense, 154 from Cal Mat, 136 from the California National Guard, 80 from AMR, 72 from Fire/EMS and 64 from U.S. Health and Human Services.
Several members of the Department of the Defense have been photographed arriving at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where officials earlier this week said the ICU has been running at 150% capacity. In the Inland Empire, county officials confirmed that a team of approximately 20 medical personnel from the Department of Defense arrived Thursday at Riverside University Health System-Medical Center.
"In the past week, our 439 bed hospital (Main Campus and Arlington Campus), which normally has an average daily census of 350 patients, has been running an average daily census of around 450 patients. RUHS Medical Center had opened an additional 121 beds to support the continuing surge of patients in our region," Jennifer Cruikshank, chief executive officer of RUHS Medical Center and Clinics, said in a statement.
