And to prepare for the coming surge of those carrying the virus, both are doing their best to clear beds, sending patients home or delaying surgeries they normally would not.

Dr. Richard V. Riggs, Cedar-Sinai’s chief medical officer, said that at first, only elective surgeries were postponed, but as the urgency has mounted, the hospital has also begun postponing cancer surgeries that oncologists say can wait until after May, when the peak is expected to hit.

But at M.L.K. clearing beds is complicated, because many of the patients do not have doctors in the community who can handle follow-up care.

“At least in Beverly Hills, when they send a patient home they have a doctor they know is going to take care of the person,” said Dr. Batchlor. “In our community there is just a huge deficit.”

And, they worry, they may be sending people home to living arrangements, such as homeless shelters or group homes, where social distancing is difficult, if not impossible.

“We’re feeling the pressure to clear the decks yet we feel that in a good majority of our patients if we clear the decks we actually could be creating more of a surge later on,” said Alaine Schauer, senior director of critical care at M.L.K.

But if their challenges are slightly different, their fears are much the same. One doctor doing coronavirus triage at Cedars-Sinai went home last week and, after stepping into the foyer to strip out of scrubs and bleaching the area, reread the Hippocratic oath.