Wildfires put pressure on L.A. health care as doctors, nurses struggle to move forward

The rapidly spreading wildfires have not only upended the lives of tens of thousands of Los Angeles County residents and business owners, but also put a strain on the region’s hospitals, clinics, first responders and nursing homes.

At least one medical clinic was burned down. Ambulances evacuated elderly patients from care facilities as embers swirled around them and their caregivers. Medical offices have been closed and routine appointments have been cancelled. Some providers have lost their homes or had to evacuate their communities, in many cases rendering them unable to work and making it a challenge for some medical centers to maintain adequate staffing.

In this maelstrom, doctors, nurses and other caregivers do their part.

On Tuesday night, Dr. Ravi Salgia, an oncologist at City of Hope Duarte Cancer Center, saw the house above his Eaton Canyon home burst into flames. As debris and sparks fell, he, his wife and their eldest daughter estimated they had less than seven minutes to escape. In the middle of the night, Sargia received a call that the hospital had become an emergency command center and was at risk of evacuation, which meant he needed to help assess patients and prepare them for discharge.

Salgia arrived at the hospital at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. He was joined by colleagues, many of whom also evacuated their homes.

“We all feel strongly that we need to take care of our patients — no matter what’s happening to us physically and emotionally, what’s going on in our houses — we need to make sure that the people we serve are taken care of,” Sargia said in a statement. said in the interview.

He didn’t know if his house was still there.

In Pacific Palisades, a primary hospital affiliated with Providence Health & Services St. John’s Physician Partners, a health care and pediatric clinic, burned down.

Not far from the eastern edge of the Palisades Fire, Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, one of the group’s main hospitals in the Los Angeles area, was so close to evacuations that the group called the area of other hospitals, looking for space for patients suffering from the fire. USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale and other hospitals in the area also faced the possibility of evacuations.

“All hospitals located near the fire are on high alert and prepared to evacuate if conditions worsen,” the hospital association said in a statement. The association added: “The fire caused significant operational obstacles.”

The association also said emergency services were strained by high call volumes, while road closures were hampering the transport of patients, supplies and medical staff. The association said some healthcare facilities were affected by power outages, while “many staff were directly impacted by evacuations and fire-related disruptions, further complicating operations.”

The California Department of Managed Health Care on Thursday ordered health plans to ensure that insured persons affected by wildfires have access to all needed medical services, including prescription drug refills.

Some doctors and other health workers at Providence St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica and Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley lost their homes or were evacuated, causing them to miss out, Edem said. work and poses challenges in ensuring adequate staffing.

Hospitals across the county said their emergency rooms treated patients with burns, smoke inhalation and eye irritation.

According to the California Department of Public Health, more than 700 people, possibly more, have been evacuated from nursing homes and other care facilities.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services said the West Valley Health Center was closed Wednesday due to a power outage. UCLA Health said it was closing some clinics in Pasadena and West Los Angeles in part because of “utility shutoffs.”

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles said its two specialty care clinics in Encino and Santa Monica were closed Thursday “due to the impact of the storm, power outages and wildfires.”

Providence also closed several clinics this week.

Two of the largest fires, the Palisades Fire in the dry coastal hills of western Los Angeles County and the Eaton Fire on the east side, which together burned more than 50 square miles and destroyed thousands of structures, will be deeply loved. cultural landmarks were reduced to ashes, killing at least 10 people.

The high winds that fueled the fires on Tuesday and Wednesday have begun to calm down, but strong winds are still expected to complicate firefighters’ tasks in the coming days.

Thousands of people may have routine medical services disrupted in the coming days.

HMO and medical provider giant Kaiser Permanente said it closed several medical locations Thursday due to the fires, including a pharmacy, labs and eye clinics.

Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, near the Eaton Fire, said some outpatient offices were affected by evacuation notices and heavy smoke.

Dignity Health, another large health system, said some of its hospitals were relying on generator power due to strong winds, and some, including Glendale Memorial Hospital, had canceled elective surgeries. Other hospitals, including USC Mount Verdugo Hospital and Providence St. John’s Hospital, have temporarily halted elective surgeries due to the impact of the wildfires.

Registered nurse Christine Kirmsse evacuated her Santa Monica home Wednesday night and stayed in a hotel an hour away. But she said she felt strongly that she needed to go to work.

“Obviously a lot of help is needed,” Comsey said. “It’s important to me because I have the ability to help. In times like these, that’s when communities are strongest.

Chaseedaw Giles and Tarena Lofton contributed to this report.

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