The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Oneida Health ED goes on temporary ambulance diversion on Monday
ONEIDA, N.Y. >> For the first time in a long time, Oneida Health asked local emergency services to divert their ambulances elsewhere due to high inpatient volume.
The temporary pause in incoming ambulances went into effect Monday around noon when Oneida Health informed local Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and the Department of Health (DOH) that its emergency room would be going on diversion. Diversion is a temporary countermeasure that hospitals can activate to minimize the number of high acuity patients that may arrive by ambulance while they are experiencing an unusually high number of patients. The hospital’s emergency room is still able to provide care to walk-in patients during an ambulance diversion.
“Due to the timing of a high hospital inpatient census and a large number of emergency room patients requiring inpatient care this afternoon, our management team and medical staff identified the need to go on temporary diversion,” said Gene Morreale, President and CEO at Oneida Health, on Monday. “This strategy will aid us in the reallocation of staff resources to manage our current high census while still maintaining the high level of care our patients have come to expect.”
The diversion was officially canceled the following Tuesday morning.
A spokesperson for the hospital verified that the influx of patients was not related to COVID-19. The hospital reported having no Covid-positive inpatients as of Monday and Tuesday.
The spokesperson said it had been at least six years since Oneida Health has gone on diversion.
In an effort to meet their staffing needs during the pause in ambulance acceptance, Oneida Health canceled some of its elective procedures in its Ambulatory Surgery Center, Operating Room, and Endoscopy Center for Tuesday and Wednesday. “Our medical staff has identified elective procedures that could be delayed to a future date in order to increase the number of staffing resources available to other units during this brief time,” Morreale explained at the time of the diversion. “Though this may inconvenience some, the safety of our patients remains our top priority while not overwhelming our talented staff.”
Morreale said Oneida Health’s management team and medical staff are well trained to handle a situation such as this to ensure that it gets resolved quickly while also allowing the hospital to continue to meet its communities’ needs. “We appreciate the collaboration of our local EMS teams and area hospitals who able to help accommodate patients during this brief time, in addition to our staff who have been very responsive in picking up extra hours or coming in on their normal day off.”