Desert hospital staff look back at trials of pandemic, what they’ve learned now

For more than a year people have long awaited for a sense of normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic forced school closures, the halting of events and certain business operations.

Local hospitals and staff were among those who bore the brunt of the pandemic, as they treated waves of patients that fluctuated by the day. In July 2020 a federal medical team arrived at Eisenhower Health to assist with the much-needed care and relief of exhausted hospital staff. This past winter, another surge prompted valley hospitals to tap into their surge plans, forcing staff and hospitals to their limits.

"We do still have patients in the hospital and specifically in the ICU who have COVID-19. So there’s still this inherent concern that it still exists and that it’s still in the community, but the scale of which it’s in our hospital or in the community is 1/20th of where it was," Eisenhower Health Intensive Care Unit Director, Dr. Anil Perumbeti.

Dr. Perumbeti saw first hand what it was like on the front lines of battling the biggest waves of virus outbreaks in the Coachella Valley. One of the biggest surges came last summer, but then again this past winter when record hospitalizations in January topped more than 1,600 patients recorded on a single day. At that time there were also more than 300 admissions to intensive care units in Riverside County.

"Emotionally it was hard because you never knew, you know it’s a new disease. You never knew what was going to happen next. You had one patient this week, you prayed that they would be there the next week but it was hard. We saw a lot of deaths, a lot of hard times and a lot of pain from the patients' side and the family side as well," said Nelson Moreno, who is a registered nurse at Desert Regional Medical Center.

During the winter surge, staff at Eisenhower Health told News Channel 3 some elective surgeries were having to be postponed. Riverside County's 17 hospitals, including those in the Coachella Valley, were all competing for staffing assistance, which included the work of travel nurses.

"All of the medical wards, except for like 20 percent, were turned into COVID units and so now on the wards we’ve kind of reverted back," said Dr. Perumbeti.

Before vaccines came into the picture, doors of ICU rooms had to be shut at all times. A tent was also set up outside for triage in order to supplement the influx of patients.

"Anybody we knew had any intensive care background was brought back into the ICU to help take care of patients," said Dr. Perumbeti.

By January hospital staff members were nearing their breaking point as hospitalizations and ICU admissions spiraled out of control following the holiday season. As of May 21, both hospitals reported numbers which reflect a drastic change compared to then. Each hospital had less than 10 patients in the ICU.

"As of right now things have calmed down a lot compared to when we first started with COVID," said Moreno.

Moreno had only been a registered nurse for roughly six months before things took a turn.

"We are a neurology floor, we did convert to COVID so the rooms had to be converted to fit that population of the patients," Moreno said.

At the time guests were not allowed to accompany patients, which added to increased isolation of those admitted to the hospital. Moreno said he and his colleagues did their best to reconnect patients and their loved ones.

"In our unit we made sure they communicated with the patients by phone calls, sometimes we were able to do FaceTime calls," said Moreno.

Policies have since changed at Desert Regional Medical Center and allow up to two guests per patient. Although Moreno was fairly new to the profession, the pandemic catapulted him into a variety of situations that expanded beyond his unit.

"It helped me grow a lot as a nurse. And it really helped me grow empathetically with these patients because they were by themselves, they didn’t have families."

Meanwhile, staff at Eisenhower Health said that masks will continue to be worn past June 15.

Although there has been a tremendous amount of progress, medical experts believe the virus will continue to live on in the community.

"I think everybody has legitimately suffered mentally, physically, beyond what we would have been able to understand. Things are way better but I think we’re taking it to mean there’s a cure for what happened. As long as there’s cases still circulating and a percentage of the population that aren’t vaccinated, this virus is going to live with is," Dr. Perumbeti.