Porterville Alternate Care Site Provision of Oxygen at COVID-19 Pandemic Peak

Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2022 Aug 5:17:e216. doi: 10.1017/dmp.2022.172.

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic peak, the author deployed twice to an emergency Alternate Care Site in Porterville, California. The provision of oxygen to patients there, as seen from a physician's perspective, does not fully support the description in a recently published article of how the State of California approached oxygen logistics during the COVID-19 surge. To inform future planning, an adequate logistical assessment must include not only approaches for solving technical resource challenges, but also reliable numbers regarding end-user resource utilization, and non-utilization, as well as program costs, benefits, and unintended consequences.

Keywords: Alternate Care Site; COVID-19; California; Logistics; Oxygen.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Pandemics