Oahu hospitals divert ambulances

Six Oahu hospitals turned away ambulances carrying noncritical patients Tuesday, a symptom of the problem the Hawaii Medical Centers’ closing has created, an Emergency Medical Services spokesman said.

An overload resulted when the six hospitals diverted patients, leaving the remaining three to handle emergencies, said Dr. James Ireland, city Emergency Medical Services director. The average daily load of 130 patients had to be spread among fewer hospitals, he said.

Hospitals diverting ambulances Tuesday were the Queen’s Medical Center, Straub Clinic & Hospital, Kuakini Medical Center, Kaiser Moanalua Medical Center, Pali Momi Medical Center and Wahiawa General, Ireland said.

The number of hospitals diverting ambulances has fluctuated from two to six in the past five days, and each has been diverting patients off and on, with the exception of Kahuku Medical Center, he said.

A patient with a life-threatening illness or injury will always go to the nearest hospital, whether on reroute status or not, he said.

HMC West, serving West Oahu, was the second busiest hospital in the state (the Queen’s Medical Center is first) with 17 ambulances going there a day, Ireland said.

Ireland said ER beds at one hospital were filled with hospital patients who couldn’t get a regular room.

Oahu’s emergency rooms have been extremely busy with longer wait times for non-emergency care, but about the same for the past 60 days — since the closing in December of the two medical centers, said Toby Clairmont, director of Emergency Services for the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, which includes all Oahu hospitals.

"The closure of the two medical centers has shifted a lot of volume to the other hospitals that has caused stress on the other hospitals, including the emergency rooms," he said.

He describes the situation as "below the first level of what we would consider to be a crisis, so it’s not a public health emergency."

"We heard a rumor today that patients were being transferred to the neighbor islands because we didn’t have adequate beds on Oahu," said Clairmont. The rumor was false, he said.

Clairmont said there were no neighbor island patients awaiting transfer to Oahu hospitals on Wednesday.

He said the tight situation is "going to last until we have Hawaii Medical Center West reopened under another organization."

EMS has added two ambulances to cover West Oahu to avoid leaving those communities without ambulances.

Ireland’s message to the community: If you have a minor medical issue, turn to your own doctor or look to urgent care facilities rather than tax an overcrowded emergency room.