Scripps Health is hiring more staff in intensive care units as the San Diego-based system prepares for a rise in COVID-19 patients, reports TV station KUSI.
Scripps said it recruited 16 ICU registered nurses who will start by the end of August. It also secured 85 temporary staffing agency ICU RNs who are on site and recruited 19 respiratory care practitioners to support ICUs.
California is among five states that have set records for average daily COVID-19 deaths in the last week, according to The Washington Post. And in recent weeks, Scripps Health CEO Chris Van Gorder told KUSI his organization has been treating more COVID-19 patients, particularly from the northern part of San Diego County.
Scripps Health reported 139 ICU beds that were staffed systemwide on July 10, including 131 ICU beds with patients in them. Fifty-one of the occupied ICU beds had COVID-19 patients in them, and only eight ICU beds were available in the system.