Hoag suffering for bed shortage

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- For years, Dolores Otting knew where paramedics would

take her bedridden mother-in-law in emergency situations: Hoag Hospital.

But recently, on Feb. 6 and March 16, things didn’t work out that way.

On both dates, hospital officials informed here they didn’t have room for

another patient. Her mother would have to go to an emergency room at

another hospital in the area.

“I couldn’t believe that the hospital’s been closed,” Otting told City

Council members last week. “Because in over four years and 70 days of

taking care of [my mother-in-law,] there has never been a time when we

haven’t had access to emergency medical services.”

Otting added that the hospital’s latest project, a $100-million tower

for women’s health services, seemed to miss the point.

“I think we need basic hospital beds and basic medical services,” she

said. “We feel safe and secure where we are -- but we’re not. And I

really think, as a community, [we] need to do something about this . . .

I was totally shocked.”

Hoag officials said Monday that the new tower, due to open in 2004,

will actually bring some relief. With an additional 90 to 100 beds, Hoag,

which is currently licensed for 416 beds, will be able to take in more

patients in its emergency room, said Debra Legan, a hospital spokeswoman.

Reasons for Hoag’s need to turn patients away include an increase in

the overall population, people staying at the hospital for longer periods

and a growing number of emergency room patients with relatively minor

ailments such as a cold or the flu, Legan said.

In comparison with other hospitals, Hoag has remained on the low side

of emergency room closures for most months since January 1999.

Diversion times -- hours when the hospital had no beds available --

mainly ranged between less than two hours and 16 hours, according to data

collected by the county’s health care agency.

But in December 1999 and January 2000, the emergency room diverted

patients for more than 131 and 132 hours respectively.

Numbers also started rising again last November, when diversions

occurred for almost 26 hours. In December, diversions went on for 41

hours, followed by almost 102 hours this January, 99 1/2 hours in

February and 70 1/2 hours in March.

At last week’s meeting, Mayor Gary Adams asked city officials to

report back on the matter. Councilman John Heffernan, who sits on Hoag’s

board of directors, said an increase in patients and the need to close

down parts of the hospital for earthquake safety retrofitting required by

the state had aggravated the situation.

“Our [patient load] is at an all-time high, as is the case with most

hospitals,” Heffernan said at last week’s council meeting.

“As a director, I would be diverted just like any of you if [Hoag’s]

full,” he said. “And it is because the emergency room cannot take another

patient by ambulance if there’s no bed for that patient in the hospital.”

Newport Beach fire department officials said they were well aware of

the issue.

In January and February, the department’s three paramedic units

dropped off about 10% of emergency patients at hospitals other than Hoag,

said Fire Chief Tim Riley. He added that his teams are the only ones in

the city.

“Clearly what that means to us is longer times on a call,” he said.

While the diversions of patients from Hoag haven’t had any serious

health consequences and it’s still too early to pin down any drops in

response time or financial costs to the department, the situation

“certainly has an incremental impact on our ability to provide services,”

Riley said.

The problem of overcrowded emergency rooms is clearly not limited to

Hoag Hospital, said Riley, adding that he had just returned from a

conference on emergency medical services in Las Vegas, where a seminar

addressed the issue.

A growing health-care trend to treat patients without hospitalizing

them combined with population growth and a lack of additional hospital

beds had led to the situation, Riley said.

In Orange County, the number of hours emergency rooms were closed to

additional patients have tripled since last year.

While hospitals in the county diverted patients for 827 hours in

February of 2000, that number rose to 2,522 hours this year, Riley said.