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Thursday, December 25, 1997

Packed hospitals turning away patients

HOUSTON (AP) -- More than a dozen hospitals have begun turning away patients because of a dramatic increase in demand for psychiatric and trauma care in recent weeks.

On Friday, 14 area hospitals were on temporary "driveby" or diversion schedules, meaning that they were requesting paramedics and rescue personnel not to bring in more patients.

Hospital officials say it is not unusual for a hospital to go on driveby, but it is unusual, and problematic, to have 14 hospitals on standby at the same time.

Dr. David Persse, the director of Houston's emergency medical services, said the problem doesn't appear to be lessening as the busy holiday season approaches.

"We just have an unusually large number of people who are sick at the same time right now," Persse said. "This is getting bad. I was kind of hoping it would settle down, but it looks like we're past that point. There is somewhat of a crisis going on."

Persse said he is finding his department running low on available ambulances. On a couple of recent occasions, he said, as many as 80 percent of his 55 ambulances were in use at one time -- leaving fewer than a dozen to respond to all remaining calls throughout the city.

"This is the worst I've ever heard of," he said.

While hospital officials and rescue personnel might disagree on the causes of the recent backups, they are agreed on the results. The most seriously sick will continue to be given top priority for treatment, but others with lesser ailments may have extended waits before being seen.

Diane Mangrum, a nursing director at Ben Taub Hospital, said part of the problem is caused by the increase in respiratory illnesses that occurs every winter. And while many of those illnesses would be relatively minor for healthy people, they can be dangerous for those with other problems, such as asthma, emphysema and congestive heart failure.

Other officials at Ben Taub also blame the increasing reliance on health-maintenance organizations and the growing number of uninsured employees of small businesses.

Many of those patients try to avoid the costs of a doctor's visit by leaving ailments untreated longer. Those patients later become so sick they require treatment at a hospital, helping clog an already crowded system.