Tulsa's busy hospital emergency rooms

An emergency room overload in Tulsa. When you call an ambulance, you want to know you'll be taken to the closest hospital, with the best care. <br><br>Busy emergency rooms turn ambulances away so

Tuesday, February 19th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

An emergency room overload in Tulsa. When you call an ambulance, you want to know you'll be taken to the closest hospital, with the best care.

Busy emergency rooms turn ambulances away so often, EMSA officials say they track diversions with a special computer program. News on Six reporter Tami Marler explains EMSA says it's a fact of life, more patients are using emergency rooms, and hospitals don't have the space or the staffing to keep up.

There may be a way you can help. "This is EMSA, what's the address or emergency?" Here at EMSA's nerve center, Bryon Schultz is helping a caller care for someone who's having trouble breathing. At the same time, he's alerting paramedics.

More and more, hospitals are temporarily closing their emergency rooms to ambulances, about 2 to 3 patients a day. "We're typically the first resort that the hospitals want to turn to when in fact we're not their real problem, their real problem is a lack of inpatient beds and a lack of nursing staff to take care of their patients." Dr. John Sacra of the Medical Control Board says Tulsa hospitals sent ambulances away 65% more often from 2,000 to last year.

"When it's the first step they take, unfortunately it's the sickest patients that need the emergency department the most are the ones that potentially are being turned away. When in fact people continue to come in by private vehicle or walk through the front door. Most people who can walk in typically can be seen here. There's a multitude of things we can take care of. There are few things that we can't. But ambulance patients typically if they're sick enough to need an ambulance, they need to go to an emergency room."

Dr. Robert Dean says during flu season, patients fill the waiting room at St. John's Minor Emergency Center, but they only wait about an hour, the cost is 40 to 50% less, and a board-certified staff can treat just about anything. â€œWe see all kinds of patients for sore throats, fevers, abdominal pains, patients with chest pain. Uh lots of fractures, multiple lacerations, lots of eye care, splash injuries."

EMSA only brings in about 10% of a hospital's emergency room patients. The other 90% come in on their own.

Tulsa's divert rate went up 65% last year. Oklahoma City's went up 28%.