While many unknowns still remain about COVID-19, what’s well documented is that serious cases of the disease can impact a person’s oxygenation levels—sometimes rapidly and with little warning.
Dr. Keith Emmons, medical director at CenCal Health, the local Medi-Cal health plan, called this “one of the cruelties of this disease.”
“The normal oxygenation would be, for a healthy person, somewhere from 99 percent to 100,” Emmons said. “But with this disease, your oxygenation level can fall quite low before you actually feel short of breath.”
But thanks to a simple and accurate tool called a pulse oximeter, COVID-19 positive patients can monitor their blood oxygenation levels from home—and CenCal Health recently procured and distributed 2,000 of the devices to health providers in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
The pulse oximeter is placed at the top of the finger and measures both pulse and oxygen saturation.
“These are best used for people who may be positive and can use this device as an assistant to help them monitor their health,” Emmons explained. “Not all patients who are COVID positive need to be hospitalized immediately, so it helps in the management of these COVID-19 patients.”
Pulse oximeters are a critical tool because they can reveal what doctors are calling “silent hypoxia.”
According to a New York Times article written by Dr. Richard Levitan, in typical cases of pneumonia, patients will feel chest pain and difficulty breathing, an obvious signal that something is wrong. But patients with COVID-19 caused pneumonia, Levitan said, often experience oxygen deprivation that is difficult to detect because they don’t initially have breathing difficulties.
“Many people do not feel this air hunger until they’re below 75 percent,” Emmons said.
Maria Jauregui-Garcia, director of nursing at Community Health Centers of the Central Coast, said that public health and CDC guidelines recommend that patients go to the emergency room when their oxygenation goes below 94 percent. At 75 percent oxygen saturation, a patient’s condition would be considered a serious health emergency, even in the absence of difficulty breathing.
Community Health Centers is one of the local health care providers that received pulse oximeters from CenCal Health. Jauregui-Garcia said the donation could save lives.
“When we have patients arrive at our clinic, we have screeners at the very front of our clinics,” Jauregui-Garcia said. “We’ve had a number of patients with pulse oximeter [readings] of 70, so that required a 911 call right away. Especially with our older population, they tend to desaturate very quickly.”
Thanks to CenCal Health’s donation, Community Health Centers will include a pulse oximeter in its COVID-19 Care Kits for patients who test positive. This will not only allow patients to know when their oxygenation is in trouble, but will also put some patients’ minds at ease if they are experiencing symptoms but are still maintaining solid oxygenation levels.
“If someone feels a little short of breath, but their oxygenation is still quite high in the 95 percent or above, they may realize that they are oxygenating fine, but perhaps it’s the anxiety,” CenCal Medical Director Emmons said. “That helps the provider to understand that they’re not in quite dire shape. … It enables us to utilize limited resources in a more efficient manner.”
Earlier in the pandemic, CenCal Health procured $250,000 worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) for local hospitals at a time when PPE was difficult to obtain. CenCal Health Chief Operating Officer Paul Jaconette said the pulse oximeter distribution is “in line with those efforts.”
“This originally came as a request from some physicians in the community,” Jaconette said. “That’s what we’re about: improving the health of the members in our community and responding to the needs of our providers.”
Highlights
• On Oct. 28, Cottage Health announced that nearly 400 people received free flu vaccines at a drive-thru clinic hosted at Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital. About 390 people ages 18 and older received a flu vaccination from their vehicles at no cost, thanks to a grant from The Wood-Claeyssens Foundation, a local donor, and the support of the Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital Foundation, according to Cottage Health.
• The city of Lompoc announced on Oct. 27 that applications are now being accepted to nominate someone to be honored in Lompoc’s River Park Recognition Grove. The Recognition Grove program is run by the Lompoc Beautification and Appearance Commission and recognizes “residents who have made significant contributions to improving quality of life in the Lompoc Valley as a result of their service” by establishing a plaque in their honor, according to a city statement. Applications can be found on the city’s Beautification and Appearance Commission webpage. For more information, contact Kathleen Forbes at (805) 875-8034.
Staff Writer Malea Martin wrote this week’s Spotlight. Send tips to spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 5-12, 2020.
