Other hospital ERs Preparing for Additional Patients
Trending
MARTINS FERRY -- With the closure of East Ohio Regional Hospital on Friday night, other local hospitals are preparing for an influx of additional patients.
Employees of the hospital held a candlelight vigil late Friday in the minutes before the facility closed just prior to midnight. A similar, somber scene also played out recently at Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling when it closed on Sept. 4.
Both hospitals are owned by Alecto Healthcare Services of Irvine, California. The company announced in August that it planned to shut down the facilities in 60 to 90 days because of financial issues. Both closed ahead of Oct. 7, which had been mentioned as the final date of operations.
Daniel Dunmyer, president and CEO of EORH and OVMC, said last week that he hoped to have the beginnings of a deal struck for the purchase of EORH by another unnamed company by noon Friday. However, no purchase agreement was reached.
Since EORH is no longer seeing emergency patients or admitting any new patients, other local facilities will now have to pick up the slack.
Earlier this month, WVU Medicine Barnesville Hospital CEO David Phillips said his facility was ready to do just that. He said Barnesville Hospital has the capacity and resources to care for more new patients, and that there is "very little wait time."
He noted the Richard L. Doan Emergency Department was renovated in 2014 and those updates were made with the potential to serve more people in mind. The hospital's ER has the capacity to handle up to twice as many patients as it typically does today, he said.
Phillips said he has reminded local first responders that the hospital is a potential destination for their patients, especially now that EORH is closed.
Wheeling Hospital spokeswoman Thea Gompers said that hospital has been making preparations to deal with additional patients. To help decrease the wait time, the hospital now is using its five Fast Track beds for emergency room patients as needed.
"The former location of those beds is now utilized as five ER beds to accommodate the increase of patients experienced daily," she said. "We now have 34 ER rooms, including the additional five Fast Track beds.
"Fast Track is now open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. We are in the process of hiring and training additional staff in order to increase Fast Track operations," Gompers said.
Wheeling Hospital also has increased its nurse, nurse aides and tech staffing on its night shift to help with an increase of ER and Fast Track patients after 5 p.m.
Regarding non-emergency care, Gompers said office space is being offered to former EORH/OVMC doctors at Wheeling Hospital and its Ohio health centers, such as Harrison Community Hospital in Cadiz. Some doctors also have been offered jobs there.
"We are moving forward with plans to lease space in downtown Wheeling for a new Urgent Care that will provide radiology and laboratory services.
So far, we have had 300 applicants from OVMC/EORH, of which almost 75 percent have been at least interviewed. Right now, 116 of the candidates are in the hiring process, including 90 hired and scheduled for orientation," Gompers said.
Tony Martinelli, Harrison Community Hospital administrator, said his hospital is ready for a possible influx of more patients and remains vigilant.
"Staffing is at a good level, and we're more than able to take additional patients. If there's a surge in demand, we're prepared to ramp up nursing levels. But with our Emergency Department team, we're confident we can handle an increase," Martinelli said.
Trinity Health System of Steubenville Director of Emergency Services Doug Wagstaff said his hospital ER team has been meeting with local medics and Belmont County 911 officials.
"Our emergency services team have been meeting with EMS and Belmont County 911 to work on streamlining our intake process for ambulances. This should help the turn-around time for the squads to allow them to get back the communities they service faster. We have also adjusted our staffing with more physicians, nurses, techs and aides to accommodate a potential influx of patients. We feel confident that we are prepared to absorb any additional patients that we may get," Wagstaff said.