A half-dozen Chicago-area hospitals have been forced to turn away emergency ambulances and several others have been strained to their limits over the last week because of an influx of flu sufferers, according to health officials.
The flu outbreak has so jammed emergency rooms that some hospitals have run short of equipment to monitor patients` vital signs and others have been forced to create makeshift rooms using open floor space and curtains. One hospital resorted to serving breakfast in the emergency room to patients waiting for beds.
Six hospitals have given notice for periods ranging from a few hours to a few days that they could not accept any new patients brought by ambulance. All hospitals continued to accept walk-in emergency room patients.
When hospitals divert ambulance patients, called ”going on by-pass,”
emergency coordinators at five resource hospitals redirect ambulances to the nearest hospital that can treat the injury or illness.
Hospitals that have gone on by-pass in the last week are Holy Family Hospital in Des Plaines; Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge; Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington; St. Margaret`s Hospital in Hammond;
Resurrection Medical Center, 7435 W. Talcott Ave.; and Humana Hospital-Michael Reese, Lake Shore Drive at 31st Street.
By Friday afternoon, only St. Margaret`s and Resurrection were still on by-pass. Resurrection was diverting critically ill ambulance patients because the hospital had no empty beds with the proper monitoring equipment to treat them.
Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Edward Hospital in Naperville, Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry and Ravenswood Hospital Medical Center in Chicago reported an unusually high number of patients. Christ Hospital nearly went on by-pass a few days ago, and was still near capacity, said spokeswoman Laurie Allen.
Once a hospital goes on by-pass, it is up to the resource hospitals to
”direct” ambulance traffic.
”The resource hospital works with the paramedics to determine where the patient should be taken,” said Susan Phillips, vice president of government and public affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals, one of the resource hospitals. The other resource hospitals are Illinois Masonic, Northwestern Memorial, Northwest Community in Arlington Heights and Highland Park Hospital.
”We stay in constant contact with paramedics and our region`s hospitals and find the place that can take them,” Phillips said.
In life-threatening cases, resource hospitals can direct paramedics to take patients to a hospital that is not on by-pass.
Doctors, nurses and health-care administrators said the overcrowding is a result of a particularly harsh flu outbreak this season.
The flu is hitting more people than usual and lasting longer, doctors and hospital officials said. The flu has afflicted some people who already were weakened in mid-December by colds and upper respiratory infections.
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In some cases, the flu has aggravated heart and lung conditions, pushing people into serious illnesses, such as congestive heart failure.
”That`s what appears to be happening here,” Allen said.
Edward Hospital in Naperville had 155 patients crammed into a facility built for 140 on Thursday, and it used nine observation bays-areas of open floor space with gurneys separated by curtains-as hospital rooms, said Karen Block, director of marketing communications at the hospital.
Friday, Lutheran General went off by-pass after turning away ambulance patients for nearly three days, said spokeswoman Laurie Stevens.
”We had not been on by-pass for seven years before that, so this is a relatively new phenomenon,” Stevens said. ”There are a couple of different factors, but basically, it`s because of the flu and pneumonia epidemic we`re seeing.”
Conditions became so crowded at Holy Family Hospital last Saturday that
”we ended up serving breakfast in our emergency room for patients waiting for rooms,” said spokeswoman Linda Melton.
Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry went on by-pass for several hours in late December when the hospital ran out of beds because of an unusually large number of patients with the flu and other respiratory problems, said spokeswoman Judith Irwin.
Dr. David Meyers, director of the emergency room at Resurrection, said his hospital has diverted patients periodically for about two months. The 311- bed hospital had 322 patients on Thursday.
”When one hospital goes on by-pass, it puts everyone else under a strain,” said Meyers, an emergency room physician for 12 years.
Meyers said this year`s crunch underscores the need for better planning among hospitals.
”We`re over-bedded for certain times of the year and under-bedded for other times of the year,” Meyers said.