SLO County ordered 100 ventilators weeks ago to save lives. Now shipment is delayed
San Luis Obispo County’s emergency response team had the foresight to order 100 ventilators in early March, a plan that appeared to be ahead of nationwide demand and could literally save lives.
It turns out, the team wasn’t quick enough.
Soon after San Luis Obispo County placed the $500,000 medical equipment order to One Beat CPR, the Florida-based vendor delayed fulfilling the order because the federal government requested the same supplies, a county spokesperson told The Tribune.
The county expects One Beat CPR to send 25 to 50 ventilators by the end of April.
Meanwhile, “the county logistics team is working around the clock, looking to purchase globally and working with other jurisdictions via mutual aid,” said Andrea Montes, who is serving as a county spokesperson during the COVID-19 crisis.
San Luis Obispo County is bound by having to go through federal channels to request resources such as medical equipment as a requirement for funding assistance, Montes said.
While the county awaits shipment and delivery, there are currently 60 ventilators in all of San Luis Obispo County.
Ventilators help people with COVID-19 stay alive. If there is a big surge in coronavirus patients, the county could be short on critical equipment that could be the difference between life and death.
Several academic medical centers have reported the virus that causes COVID-19 can cause life-threatening respiratory failure by damaging air sacks and small blood vessels that deliver oxygen to red blood cells.
Ventilators — also called breathing machines or respirators — help those patients breathe by pumping oxygen in a tube that has been inserted down the windpipe.
How many ventilators does SLO County need?
It’s unknown exactly how many ventilators San Luis Obispo County needs to prepare for any surge in COVID-19 patients.
Based on what’s been seen in other areas with a high number of patients, including Seattle and Wuhan, China, only a portion of people who pick up the coronavirus will have serious symptoms.
Only a portion of those who are hospitalized will need intensive care, and a portion of those will need ventilators.
How many ventilators will we need? Available data is limited for the portion of patients who require ventilation.
A study of a group of patients in the Seattle region showed 75% of those admitted into intensive care needed mechanical ventilation. And a study of a group of patients in Wuhan in Wuhan shows about 47% of those admitted into intensive care required mechanical ventilation.
In New York City, about 25% of patients required hospitalization and about 44% of those admitted required ventilation, according to a New York Times article citing city public health officials.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in San Luis Obispo County has steadily risen in the last week.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 80 residents have tested positive for coronavirus, 10 of those are in the hospital and two are in intensive care, according to ReadySLO.gov.
Both local patients in intensive care are using a ventilator, Public Health Officer Penny Borenstein said at a press conference Tuesday. One of the patients has used one for many days, another began using one when they were admitted Monday.
The county is preparing to have more than 1,000 hospital beds available for COVID-19 patients. The hope is they won’t all be needed.
Sheltering at home is meant to prevent a surge in patients or at least spread out the number of patients over a longer timeline so the county isn’t faced with a drastic shortage in supplies.
Ventilator shortage nationwide
Around the time that San Luis Obispo County’s order was delayed, President Donald Trump told state governors on a conference call that in the search for medical equipment like ventilators, they “should try getting it yourselves.”
The ventilator shortage is felt statewide and nationwide. New federal guidelines now suggest patients split the use of ventilators as a last resort.
At the beginning of the year, California’s hospital system had a supply of 7,500 ventilators.
The state set a goal of acquiring 10,000 more, and has so far acquired about 4,250 additional ventilators, according to a statement issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Saturday. Of those, 1,000 are under repair.
Since then, private industry has ramped up production of the equipment and Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to order General Motors to produce ventilators.
On Monday, the president said he expects production to outpace national demand to the point that the U.S. will be able to send ventilators to Europe soon.
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 3:55 PM.
