O.C. hospitals urged to cancel elective surgeries amid fear system ‘may collapse’ due to COVID-19 spike

At Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, tents were set up outside the emergency room Thursday evening to deal with the influx of COVID-19 patients. But finding enough staff to treat all the patients has become a larger problem than finding enough beds, said Dr. Tirso del Junco Jr., chief medical officer at KPC Health, the company that runs the hospital.

“Our challenge is getting the nurses,” del Junco told KTLA. “We have beds — if we can get the nursing staff and get them in the numbers that we need. I think everybody’s being challenged by that.” Del Junco added that the hospital system has been experiencing a shortage of doctors, as well