Kaweah Health’s downtown Visalia hospital reached its bed capacity Monday afternoon with the hospital announcing Tuesday morning that hospital officials declared a “code triage” to onboard patients.
According to an announcement from Kaweah Health, 163 patients were in its emergency room seeking care as of Monday evening. 63 of those patients were awaiting to be admitted into the hospital.
According to its release, Kaweah Health Medical Center was caring for 95 admitted patients with a primary diagnosis of coronavirus between admissions and the emergency room.
“The surge of patients began on Saturday, Aug. 14 and has steadily increased since that time,” the health agency said.
Kaweah officials are urging residents in the south Valley to direct their medical care needs toward primary care physicians first..
“We cannot discharge enough patients to handle the number of admissions that are coming in,” Kaweah Health vice president and chief nursing officer Keri Noeski said in a statement.
They also recommend heading to Kaweah Health urgent care clinics in the event of non-life threatening illness.
The hospital’s two urgent care clinics, located at 1633 S. Court St. and 3600 W. Flagstaff Ave, remain open.
Its Court Street clinic is open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Flagstaff/Demaree location is open daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
