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Valley Hospitals & Clinics Prepare for Influx of Patients

TENTS AT DESERT REGIONAL
Tents outside of Desert Regional Medical Center

Large, yellow tents went up Monday outside Desert Regional Medical Center in Palms Springs, hours after the hospital enacted a strict no-visitors policy.

"I think it is a little unprecedented from what we've had in the past," the hospital's chief quality officer Christine Langenwalter said.

There are now only a few exceptions that visitors can enter the hospital.

Meanwhile, the hospital is prepared to turn a trailer in the parking lot into a triage center for people infected with coronavirus.

"If we do get a number of patients that are coming in with symptoms, we want to be able to segregate them, keep them in special places, isolate them, and help get them what they need. But we also want to protect our staff and our healthcare workers that are here, our physicians," Langenwalter said.

Clinics throughout the Valley are also taking extra precautions. At Centro Medico Cathedral City, workers wearing masks and gloves set up outside on the sidewalk to handle patients before they walk through the door.

But many health officials remain concerned, since right now no hospital or clinic in the Coachella Valley can conduct rapid-testing for coronavirus.

"That means we don't know until some time has passed whether a person is positive or not to the infection. We're working to make sure we bring in those resources to the Coachella Valley, so that we can know within 30 minutes if someone is infected or not," Desert Healthcare Foundation CEO Dr. Conrado Barzaga said.

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Peter Daut

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