SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) - San Mateo County has about seven ICU beds right now but under this new plan, 10-additional ICU beds would become available at Dignity Health.
Right now, more than 17,000 Californians are being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals across the golden state.
As COVID cases continue to climb, ICU beds across the state are in demand to treat the most critically ill patients.
On Monday, San Mateo County leaders announced plans to add 10 more ICU beds.
"Today we have 7 available intensive care unit beds in San Mateo County that are staffed and available," Louise Rogers, chief at San Mateo County Health, said. "We expect that they would be needed, and they will be needed soon."
The $4.5-million deal announced on Monday would add the 10-beds at Dignity Health's Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City.
More than 3-dozen workers from AMI Expeditionary Healthcare would provide staffing for the extra beds.
"They had the network to be able to pull in more than 40 staff on pretty short notice to be able to mobilize 10 additional intensive care unit beds," Rogers said.
Louise Rogers leads the San Mateo County Health System.
She says, right now, 6-people from outside the county, are receiving treatment at county hospitals.
Rogers believes with an anticipated post-holiday surge on the way, on top of a current post-Thanksgiving surge.
Having more available beds available in the Bay Area region will have a big impact on hospitals all across the state.
"My hope is that it means that in the Bay Area we can really keep people close to home and not to have to transfer people far from where they live and where they have to recover. We also really need to keep our hospitals flowing smoothly. If folks can't be discharged properly because they're far away from home and the resources, that will impede all of the systems flows,” Rogers said.
Rogers encouraging people to provide a gift to health workers this holiday season by avoiding large gatherings.
"But with the vaccines rolling out, we can all think about we can think about the holidays in the future, but let's not gather now," Rogers said.
Officials say the first 5-beds will be activated next week, and last 5 will be available soon afterward.
Rogers says if current trends stay the same, the beds will be filled soon.
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