ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital this week asked Roanoke Emergency Medical Services workers to take ill patients who might need hospitalization to Columbia Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem, saying the Roanoke hospital did not have any staffed beds available.
The Carilion hospital said it would continue to accept head trauma victims, and its sister facility, Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital, would take obstetrics and pediatric emergency patients, David Hoback, district chief of EMS services, said Wednesday.
Hoback said he was asked Tuesday night to divert all other patients from the two Roanoke facilities.
The patients most likely affected were those who appeared to be suffering from a heart attack or stroke, he said.
Hoback also said that rather than automatically divert such patients from Roanoke Memorial, he instructed emergency workers to call ahead to the hospital and ask if it could handle a patient.
That put the burden of refusing the patient on the hospital and not on his staff, he said.
"Patients get angry if they can't go to the hospital they want to," Hoback said.
Roanoke Memorial was able to begin accepting more patients by late Wednesday, but a spokeswoman said conditions could change again.
Lewis-Gale had treated four patients originally headed for Roanoke Memorial as of Wednesday at 5 p.m., officials there said.
"We do have an adequate number of critical care beds open at this time," spokeswoman Terri Rush said. She said Lewis-Gale had an extra emergency room physician on duty and a pool of workers who can be called.
Diverting patients from one hospital to another has happened in the past with all of the facilities in the area. However, the Roanoke Memorial decision came the same week some members of its nursing staff met with union representatives from the Kentucky Nurses Association and a week after they met with the Service Employees International Union. A common complaint from the workers has been the staffing shortage at the hospital, union organizers said.
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