-April 25,2020-
Low census, furloughs and layoffs at local healthcare facilities
In this medical crisis it is counter-intuitive to hear that many of our local healthcare facilities are operating with far fewer patients than average including busy health clinics like Family HeathCare Network who are seeing fewer walk-ins, labs who are not receiving requests for tests, dentists and specialists whose appointments have been canceled and hospitals like Kaweah Delta whose bed census is down to around 50%.
Mass layoffs and furlough of staff are the result. Local health care concerns filing state layoff notices as of this week include FamilyHealthCare announcing they’ve temporality laid off 39 in Visaia, 32 in Fresno and 33 in Hanford. Fresno Surgical Hospital has laid off 52 and Western Dental with multiple offices around the Valley has laid off 126. Visalia-based ProPT Physical Therapy has laid off 54.
A number of healthcare entities are seeking help from the government stimulus programs and getting it. Kaweah Delta reports that as of mid-April they have received over $14 million to help stem the loss of revenue during the COVID crisis.The hospital has some 5000 employees.
In March alone ER visits were down 24% and outpatient Urgent Care visits at one of their facilities was down 34%.Also there are fewer rehab patients.One category that is up -robotic surgery.The hospital has also received advanced payment from Medicare to help tide them over as they experience a sea of red ink.
Kaweah Delta has been “docking” employees (cancelling their shifts), says CEO Gary Herbst, reducing hours and furloughing (temporary layoff). “It’s awful, but we have no other option as, like so many businesses and industries out there, our revenue has plummeted. We are helping these employees as much as possible to secure federal and state unemployment insurance benefits and evaluating other options to potentially use sick banks or other sources to cover lost wages,” Herbst said.
Advocates point out hospitals faced skyrocketing costs of preparing for a surge of COVID-19 patients and drops in revenue from shutting down regular operations in terms of scheduled procedures. In addition they have been treating an increasing number of uninsured patients as a result of the economic situation. It all adds up to a “triple whammy” for America’s hospitals and health systems and our health care heroes says statement for the American Hospital Assn.
A Kaweah Delta news release says as of April 23, Kaweah Delta Medical Center is caring for 27 patients who have tested positive for COVID-19. While Kaweah Delta staff are exercising an abundance of caution, 21 of Kaweah Delta’s 5,000 employees have tested positive for COVID-19. Kaweah Delta sent all home to quarantine. Three of those 21 have now fully recovered and are back at work after testing negative for COVID-19. None of these employees have required hospitalization.
As of Thursday, April 23, there were 453 confirmed positive cases in Tulare County with 25 COVID-19-related deaths and 69 recovered. California has 37, 369 positive cases with 1,469 deaths. At the hospital there have been 17 total deaths since the beginning of March, 10 of which were residents of Redwood Springs nursing home.
Tulare County home building slows to crawl
Builders in Tulare County have taken out permits for just 15 new homes so far in April. That compares to 103 for the same period in 2019.
Snowpack about gone on upper Kaweah
Here is a pic from the Mineral King webcam at 9000ft in the upper Kaweah region showing snowpack about gone.
Stale beer a brewing problem
Wall St Journal reports millions of gallons of beer stuck in stadiums, concert halls, restaurants and bars are fast going stale, leaving the beer industry with a tricky problem: What to do with all that booze nobody will ever drink?
The coronavirus pandemic forced U.S. bars to close ahead of two of the country’s biggest drinking occasions: St Patrick’s Day and the “March Madness” basketball tournament. Beer intended for those events is now spoiling in locked establishments, and brewers are trying to get it back so kegs can be refilled before lockdowns…
Coke sales drop 25%
Last week, Coca-Cola reported a 25% drop in sales volumes this month. the real hit has been in the B2B market: Coke does almost half its sales from movie chains, events like concerts, and vending machines. Locations that are now, we hate to break this, closed.
Almond acreage climbs 10% in 2019
California’s 2019 almond acreage is estimated at 1,530,000 acres, up 10 percent from the 2018 acreage of 1,390,000. Of the total acreage for 2019, 1,180,000 acres were bearing and 350,000 acres were non-bearing. Preliminary bearing acreage for 2020 was estimated at 1,260,000 acres.
Nonpareil continued to be the leading variety, followed by Monterey, Butte, Carmel, and Padre.
Number one Kern, number 2 Fresno, Stanislaus, Merced and Madera were the leading counties. These five counties had 72 percent of the total bearing acreage.
Ready to open up economy? Not so fast
CBS News Poll found that only 13% of Americans would definitely return to public places if stay-at- home orders were lifted at this time.Farmers hoping to return to normal sales may have to wait until consumers feel confident enough to dine out in large numbers speculates a note from Milk Producers Council.