10/15/2020 San Diego State University Mail - RE: Clarifying definition of current available bed Tarryn Mento RE: Clarifying definition of current available bed 1 message Sweeney, Sarah To: Tarryn Mento , "Sturak, Craig" Cc: "Workman, Michael E" Tue, Oct 13, 2020 at 12:46 PM For trigger 7, can you please clearly explain the county's definition of a current ICU bed that's open? With respect to trigger number 7, the term ‘open ICU bed’ refers to an unoccupied ICU bed. So of all the ICU beds across the civilian hospitals, this represents the percent of beds that do not have a patient in them. This is a daily point in time count (submitted at the same time each day) and used to monitor a trend over time. Do staff have to be immediately available for it? No Does the bed have to be currently empty? (I talked to a nurse at Sharp who mentioned that sometimes, patients are placed in an ICU bed but don't need ICU-level care. They said this may be due to other units being too full. So I'm curious to know if an ICU bed that was occupied by a non-ICU patient would be considered open.) Correct, the bed needs to be empty. An ICU bed occupied by a non-ICU patient would not be considered empty, it would be considered occupied. As for the Rady ICU beds and policies, I recommend asking them. Sarah Sweeney, MA, Communications Officer Agency Executive Office County of San Diego Health & Human Services Agency O: 619-685-2522 C: 619-997-6481   For local information and daily updates on COVID-19, please visit sandiegocounty.gov/coronavirus. To receive updates via text, send COSD COVID19 to 468311. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=b196120b9e&view=pt&search=all&permthid=thread-a%3Ar985372425190258391%7Cmsg-f%3A1680467170153… 1/3 10/15/2020 San Diego State University Mail - RE: Clarifying definition of current available bed   From: Tarryn Mento Sent: Monday, October 12, 2020 5:03 PM To: Sturak, Craig Cc: Sweeney, Sarah ; Workman, Michael E Subject: Re: Clarifying definition of current available bed Also, do the current ICU beds available include ICU beds at Rady Children's Hospital? If so, how many? Rady said that it would accept patients up to 26 years old during the pandemic, but most of the hospitalized COVID patients are well older than this -- how can these beds serve patients older than 26? On Mon, Oct 12, 2020 at 3:24 PM Tarryn Mento wrote: Hi Craig, I have a follow up question to some responses that Sarah has helped me get. I believe she's out of the office so I'm checking if you can help. I was asking Sarah for details on what triggers 5 and 7 exactly track. I was trying to learn if the county includes licensed beds in its ICU and hospital capacity measurements and she clarified with this answer: Trigger 5 is what percentage of current beds are occupied. Trigger 7 is what percentage of current ICU beds are open (=not occupied). I'd like to further clarify what the county means by "current ICU beds" that are open. 1) For trigger 7, can you please clearly explain the county's definition of a current ICU bed that's open? 2) Do staff have to be immediately available for it? 3) Does the bed have to be currently empty? (I talked to a nurse at Sharp who mentioned that sometimes, patients are placed in an ICU bed but don't need ICU-level care. They said this may be due to other units being too full. So I'm curious to know if an ICU bed that was occupied by a non-ICU patient would be considered open.) If this is unclear in any way, please contact me at 315-345-1313. Please let me know by the end of the day tomorrow. Thanks, Tarryn https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=b196120b9e&view=pt&search=all&permthid=thread-a%3Ar985372425190258391%7Cmsg-f%3A1680467170153… 2/3 10/15/2020 San Diego State University Mail - RE: Clarifying definition of current available bed -Tarryn Mento KPBS Health Reporter (619) 594-3766 @tbmento -Tarryn Mento KPBS Health Reporter (619) 594-3766 @tbmento https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ik=b196120b9e&view=pt&search=all&permthid=thread-a%3Ar985372425190258391%7Cmsg-f%3A1680467170153… 3/3