Dr. Danielle Campagne, emergency department chief of Community Regional Medical Center in Downtown Fresno, speaks to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning. Video screen grab

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday morning to proclaim a local emergency related to hospital capacity.

The move comes as a so-called “tripledemic” — RSV, flu and Covid-19 — fills hospital beds. At the same time, Madera Community Hospital is shutting its doors to patients.

The Board of Supervisors made the proclamation against the advice of county staff, who said conditions have improved since last week when the item was placed on the agenda. In addition, it appears state officials are more amenable to helping Madera Community Hospital with resources than they were last week, said Paul Nerland, Fresno County chief administrative officer.

The emergency proclamation sends a message to the state that Fresno County is in dire need of resources to meet the current challenges.

It was testimony from Dr. Danielle Campagne, emergency department chief of Downtown Fresno’s Community Regional Medical Center (CRMC) — the only Level 1 Trauma Center in Central California — that convinced the supervisors to proclaim the emergency.

Last week for four hours, CRMC reached such a level of critical capacity that it had to divert trauma patients to other facilities for a period of four hours — something that hasn’t been done in her 20 years with the hospital system, Campagne said.

She added that the east hallway off of CRMC’s emergency department currently has 30 hospital beds in it.

“We are in dire straights. Patients are suffering,” Campagne said. “Madera may be the tipping point for us.”

Supervisor Steve Brandau expressed some trepidation about declaring the emergency, afraid it could be perceived as a “cry wolf” situation.

“To me, declaring an emergency is a big deal,” Brandau said.

In the end, all of the supervisors voted to proclaim the emergency, which is scheduled to be reconsidered by the board Feb. 7, or as early as the board’s next meeting Jan. 24.