Fw: EMSNEWS Digest - 22 Jan 2001 to 23 Jan 2001 (#2001-18)

[Guest guest]

US - Hospital Overloads Becoming a Worry

>

> http://www.newsday.com/ap/healthscience/ap753.htm

>

> Hospital Overloads Becoming a Worry

> by RON TODT

> Associated Press Writer

>

>

> PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Hospital cutbacks and closings coupled with nurse

> shortages are forcing more and more overcrowded emergency rooms around the

> country to send ambulances elsewhere.

>

> The hospitals do not have enough ER staff or beds to handle the crush.

>

> Health care officials say no one in critical condition is being turned

away,

> and other patients are simply being directed to other hospitals nearby.

But

> they worry what could happen if the crunch gets any worse.

>

> ''We're dealing with lives. It's not like we're selling widgets,'' said

> Connor, president of the Massachusetts Ambulance Association.

>

> When a hospital goes on diversion, as it is known, it puts out the word to

> emergency services, so that ambulance drivers and their passengers do not

> have to wander from hospital to hospital.

>

> Walk-in patients are still being treated, but many of them are waiting

hours

> to be seen, and then waiting in the ER some more until a bed opens up

> somewhere in the hospital.

>

> ''The kind of complaint we hear is, 'Yes, I got the care, but they had to

> put me in the hallway on a gurney for two hours,''' Pennsylvania

Department

> of Health spokesman McGarvey said.

>

> Nearly all hospitals have to divert patients from time to time,

particularly

> in the winter, which is the season for colds and flu, as well as chest

pain

> and heart attacks from shoveling snow. But the problem appears to be

> happening more often, earlier in the season, and over broader areas than

> usual.

>

> In Delaware County, outside Philadelphia, all seven county hospitals were

> full Monday night and went on diversion. In the burg area, all five

> hospitals had to divert patients for most of three days last week.

>

> ''We're not even in the flu season yet. I think, come the end of this

month,

> we're going to be in a crunch again,'' said Ehlers, president of

the

> burg area's Emergency Health Services Federation.

>

> Experts attribute the problem in part to long-term changes in the

> health-care industry.

>

> In the past 10 years, more than 1,000 hospitals and 1,100 emergency rooms

in

> the United States have closed, and others have had to cut back because of

> diminished payments from Medicare and managed-care plans.

>

> Add to that a severe nationwide shortage of nurses, and an aging

population

> that is starting to require more hospital care.

>

> In November, Cleveland hospitals set a third straight monthly record when

> eight hospitals went on diversion 57 times. With hospitals filling even

> before flu season, Cleveland and Cincinnati authorities last month

proposed

> opening ''treat and release'' clinics in recreation centers or schools for

> flu patients.

>

> In Boston, the area's 27 emergency rooms shut down for a total of 631

hours

> in November -- nearly twice the 386 hours that ambulances were diverted in

> October.

>

> In Buffalo, N.Y., hospitals have reported keeping patients in emergency

> rooms, sometimes for more than 24 hours, until beds in intensive care or

> other floors open up.

>

> Similar situations are being reported in cities such as Seattle, Tucson,

> Ariz., Los Angeles and New York.

>

> ''It places horrendous tension and stress on emergency medical technicians

> and paramedics that now have to shop around and find a hospital,'' Connor

> said. ''And the tension we feel on the street is probably nothing compared

> to what doctors and nurses feel.''

>

> Calling the recent overloads a wake-up call, Pennsylvania health

authorities

> scheduled a series of working groups to look at the problem and come up

with

> solutions. Others say a broader solution is needed.

>

> ''It's like the highway system, which was pretty much ignored and fell

into

> disrepair until federal and state governments decided they needed to

rebuild

> the infrastructure,'' said Dr. Carius, emergency room physician at

> Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut and president-elect of the American

College

> of Emergency Physicians.

>

> ''We've put health care on the back burner for so long, it's going to take

a

> massive commitment to say, 'We have to have more beds, better-equipped

> hospitals -- a system that meets the needs of the population.'''

>

> ------------------------------

>

> End of EMSNEWS Digest - 22 Jan 2001 to 23 Jan 2001 (#2001-18)

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>