LOS ALAMITOS (CBSLA) – Patients being taken to hospital face long lines in emergency room bays after the Orange County Health Care Agency suspends ambulance diversions.
By diversion by ambulances, hospitals could request that emergency patients be taken to other medical centers. With so many Orange County hospitals at capacity due to the spike in COVID-19 patients, suspending diversions means hospitals must accept patients regardless of their capacity.
This causes long waiting times for some hospitals, but also prevents hospitals from admitting patients if they are not full.
At Los Alamitos Medical Center, a line of at least 17 ambulances carrying patients was spotted outside the emergency room on Wednesday. Firefighters from Anaheim, Long Beach, Orange County Fire Authority, and LA County waited with their patients, some of whom were on stretchers, on the sidewalk that led to the emergency room driveway.
Some patients were given EKGs and X-rays in the bay, according to an EMT who asked not to be identified. Some hospitals don’t accept patients unless they get a quick COVID-19 test first, he said.
Orange County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has temporarily suspended all ambulance diversions for hospitals participating in the 9-1-1 system. See Dr. Carl Schultz, EMS Medical Director. # OCCOVID19 #StopTheSurge #SlowTheSpread Wear a mask pic.twitter.com/XkD5gmOVhy
– OC Health Care Agency (@ochealth) December 17, 2020
Dr. Carl Schultz, Orange County’s medical director, said they were forced to take this step because an overwhelming number of patients led to almost all hospitals diverting ambulances at the same time.
Suspending ambulance diversion “will spread this across the county and help reduce escalating concerns about finding hospital destinations for ambulances,” he said. “As far as we know, this has never happened before.”
On Thursday, the province again broke the record for hospitalization – which has become a daily occurrence of late.
There are currently 1,519 COVID-19 patients in the hospital, including 343 in ICU beds. The adjusted capacity of the province’s ICU bed remains at zero.