The intensive care unit at Orange County Global Medical Center — one of three trauma centers in a county of 3 million people — has been shut down for nearly a month because of flood damage from the October rains.

ICU patients are now housed in other areas of the Santa Ana hospital pending repairs to the 32-bed unit.

The hospital was recently stripped by the county of its designation as a stroke-receiving center, meaning ambulances are no longer allowed to take stroke patients there. Orange County Global, which retains its designation as a trauma center for critically injured patients, said ICU patients are still cared for, but in other units since the flooding in mid-October.

“We are working in close collaboration with (the California Department of Public Health) to repair and remediate affected areas as expeditiously as possible while ensuring the safety of patients and staff,” said a spokesman for the hospital.

In a message to staff, the ICU director told employees to avoid the area and wear full protective gear if they must enter. The unit has been tested for mold, asbestos and lead but Orange County Global did not publicly release the results.

Orange County Global, one of several hospitals in Southern California owned by KPC Health and operated under the Global brand, has had serious problems in recent months.

In July, emergency dispatchers and paramedics were ordered by the county’s Emergency Medical Services agency to indefinitely stop taking stroke patients to the hospital. In early November, county EMS took the next step and dropped Orange County Global altogether as one of nine medical facilities designated as a stroke neurology-receiving center, which are considered specially equipped to treat stroke patients.

Under county guidelines, 911 dispatchers and paramedics must route stroke patients to a stroke neurology-receiving center, bypassing other hospitals without the designation.

While losing the county title, Orange County Global retains its status as a “comprehensive stroke center” from the nonprofit Accreditation Commission for Health Care, which ensures that medical facilities meet or exceed national standards.

KPC Health has said it will pursue all options to fight the county revocation, noting the hospital treated 343 stroke patients in 2024. The hospital also called for the county’s EMS medical director to be removed for allegedly making heavy-handed decisions.

KPC said a three-physician appeals panel had recommended suspension rather than revocation.

Orange County’s decision to drop the 282-bed hospital as a county stroke center was prompted by a complaint from a woman who alleged her husband waited nearly eight hours for emergency stroke surgery because Orange County Global didn’t have the necessary equipment and a qualified neurosurgeon to conduct the operation.

The county’s decision also followed a state investigation in February that found troubling practices at the hospital, which serves many poor and vulnerable patients. Since then, the state has declared that the medical center has resolved the problems.

Among the deficiencies cited by the state, the hospital routinely failed to pay contractors and suppliers, who then withheld services and equipment crucial to patient care. In one case, hundreds of lab samples went unprocessed for more than two weeks, including emergency tests to determine if patients had major illnesses, because the hospital had not paid its contracted laboratory.

KPC Health blamed the problems on industry-wide financial pressures affecting all medical centers that treat the poor and uninsured.