Dr. Cara Christ, the director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, has asked Arizona hospitals to prepare for crisis care and fully activate emergency plans as the COVID-19 numbers in Arizona climbed last week. Banner Health, the state’s largest health system, said ICU bed occupancy was growing and that if current trends continued would exceed capacity. Banner Health has also stated its reached capacity for its nine ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machines. Dr. Christ asked hospital leaders to review a state crisis plan to “make determinations for moving your facility from conventional care to contingency care and prepare for crisis care.” Read more.