ER diverts more patients; Reasons unclear for increase in business.Byline: Mary Jo Hill LEOMINSTER - UMass Memorial - HealthAlliance Leominster Campus was so busy it had to divert di·vert v. di·vert·ed, di·vert·ing, di·verts v.tr. 1. To turn aside from a course or direction: Traffic was diverted around the scene of the accident. 2. ambulances twice this week, said Fire Chief Ronald M. Pierce. Including the diversions on Monday and Tuesday, there have been five diversions at the hospital so far in March, compared with a single one in February, Chief Pierce said. HealthAlliance had an influx of patients overnight on Monday, when 32 new patients were admitted from 5 p.m. until Tuesday morning, said Mary Lourdes Burke, a HealthAlliance spokeswoman. Some of these patients came from other area hospitals, Ms. Burke said. She said she couldn't pinpoint any particular illness that was bringing more people to the hospital, although an emergency doctor did note that more patients have been coming in with complicated conditions. Over the last few days, several patients have come in with pneumonia pneumonia (n  mōn`yə), acute infection of one or both lungs that can be caused by a bacterium, usually Streptococcus pneumoniae , and there have been people with chest pains, which could be a
result of shoveling snow, she said.
Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer went on diversion A turning aside or altering of the natural course or route of a thing. The term is chiefly applied to the unauthorized change or alteration of a water course to the prejudice of a lower riparian, or to the unauthorized use of funds. yesterday afternoon and tried to do the same Tuesday night but couldn't because HealthAlliance already was in a similar situation, said Jayme Kulesz, a spokeswoman for Nashoba. Like the facility in Leominster, Nashoba couldn't see any trends in why so many people were coming to its emergency room, Ms. Kulesz said. Fifty people were in the emergency room Tuesday night, a large number for the facility, she said. At HealthAlliance, a program called Code Gray brings extra staff to the emergency department to help prevent diversions or cut down on a diversion's length, she said. Code Gray has reduced the number of hours that ambulances have to be diverted di·vert v. di·vert·ed, di·vert·ing, di·verts v.tr. 1. To turn aside from a course or direction: Traffic was diverted around the scene of the accident. 2. from HealthAlliance, she said. During a diversion, an ambulance brings only patients suffering from a life-threatening condition to the hospital, although patients being brought there by other means are still accepted, Ms. Burke said. The hospital in Leominster has been on diversion status diversion status Bypass status Hospital care A temporary status for a health care facility, where its administration informs its emergency medical services that the hospital is full. See Antidumping laws. for relatively short periods, like four or five hours at a time, said Diane Barletta, assistant director of the Central Massachusetts Emergency Medical Systems Corp. in Holden Holden, town (1990 pop. 14,628), Worcester co., central Mass., a residential suburb of Worcester; settled 1723, set off and inc. 1741. Manufactures include electrical and metal products, plastics, and machinery. . The corporation oversees emergency medical services An Emergency medical service (abbreviated to initialism "EMS" in many countries) is a service providing out-of-hospital acute care and transport to definitive care, to patients with illnesses and injuries which the patient believes constitutes a medical emergency. for Central Massachusetts and coordinates if a diversion occurs. Other facilities - not typically in this region - at times have been on diversion for eight to 16 hours at a shot, Ms. Barletta said. HealthAlliance doesn't abuse diversions or have a cavalier cavalier (kăv'əlĭr`), in general, an armed horseman. In the English civil war the supporters of Charles I were called Cavaliers in contradistinction to the Roundheads, the followers of Parliament. attitude toward them, Ms. Barletta said. In September, the Leominster hospital was on diversion for only two hours and in October for three hours, she said. "They're not a problem child," she said. Ms. Burke said that at HealthAlliance, the emergency department, urgent care center and inpatient care inpatient care Managed care Services delivered to a Pt who needs physician care for > 24 hrs in a hospital all have been particularly busy in March. Chief Pierce said he met with hospital representatives, fire union representatives and Mayor Dean J. Mazzarella in January to learn about the Code Gray program. Leominster's firefighters, which run two city ambulances, are notified when a Code Gray is called, although it doesn't affect ambulances at that point, Chief Pierce said. Other communities also are told, he said. When a diversion does occur, an ambulance still can take a life-and-death case to the hospital, but other less-serious cases are taken to another facility, usually in Clinton, Gardner or Worcester, Chief Pierce said. Two EMTs are brought in during a diversion to run the city's second ambulance, and make sure an ambulance always is in Leominster, Chief Pierce said. An ambulance taking a patient to an outlying out·ly·ing adj. Relatively distant or remote from a center or middle: outlying regions. outlying Adjective far away from the main area Adj. 1. hospital could be out of the city for 30 to 60 minutes, he said. If the patient traveling to the outlying hospital needs more medical attention, then a private MedStar ambulance, which has more advanced life-support systems life-support system n. 1. Equipment that creates a viable environment under conditions otherwise incompatible with life. 2. than city ambulances, will take the person, he said. It can be confusing con·fuse v. con·fused, con·fus·ing, con·fus·es v.tr. 1. a. To cause to be unable to think with clarity or act with intelligence or understanding; throw off. b. to a patient when firefighters arrive at a home and say the person is going to be taken to a hospital other than HealthAlliance, Chief Pierce said. But, he added, "People understand once it's explained to them, but you can see where their confusion is." |
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