Sarasota Memorial turns away ambulances

[Chimpie]

Lack of staff spurs ER closures

Sarasota Memorial Hospital has closed its emergency room doors to ambulances 33 times since June and hospital officials say a shortage of nurses is causing the problem -- not a lack of beds.

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Chimp

 

[DonQ]

Looks like we all should have been nurses eh? Hahaha!

 

[PArescueEMT]

I found out that in PA, it is illegal to go on "Courtesy Diversion" due to a lack of staff. 1 hosp didn't get the picture until the D.O.H. hit them with almost $500,000.00 in fines for refusing Pts. because they "were short staff." They attempeted to turn me away while I was riding the litter in pumping the patients heart away. Some places are better than others. Iguess...

 

[SafetyPro2]

Boy, out here, its routine. ALS units have to check for hospital status before transporting, and complete or partial (specific cases - pediatrics, trauma, etc.) ER closures are very common. All of the area hospitals are tied into the Readinet system, which allows dispatch to see their specific status real-time and advise ALS units accordingly.

BLS units can't be diverted except for "internal disaster" which would be a crime lockdown, hazmat incident, fire, etc.). Since we're BLS, we can always transport to the MAR (most accessible receiving).

 

[rescuecpt]

My FD can only be diverted from our hospital if there is a massive contamination issue in the ED. Otherwise, they can divert whoever they want for whatever reason, but we are always permitted to transport since they're the closest hospital, 30 minutes away... the next hospital is at least another 10 on a good day, but that hospital is not a trauma center. The nearest trauma center past our first hospital is 1hr.