Safety

Unloading delays cause availability problems

Emergency Management Alert, June 18, 2007

The time it takes for emergency personnel to unload a patient at a hospital's emergency department can be critical to that patient's care. But in southern California, a new problem is emerging-emergency personnel are becoming so delayed trying to drop patients off, it is impacting the availability of paramedics (and critical equipment like ambulances) to respond to other emergencies.

 

It's a vicious cycle, and one that emergency managers want to resolve, reported The Press-Enterprise. In two southern California counties alone, personnel may waste more than 28,000 hours this year just waiting to unload patients onto hospital beds if the trend continues, according to the Press-Enterprise.

 

To read more, click here.

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