`Bed Delay` Keeps Okla. Ambulance Crews Tied Up
July 01-- On any single day, 20 percent of the EMSA paramedics needed to respond to emergencies in Tulsa could be stranded waiting in a hospital emergency room instead.
The state Medical Control Board is gathering data on a growing problem known as "bed delay," which keeps ambulance crews tied up at hospital emergency rooms because no beds are available for the patient they have transported.
A snapshot of data showed that in some cases, half a dozen ambulances out of about 30 normally on the streets of Tulsa were stranded at hospitals for more than an hour due to bed delays, said Dr. Jeffrey Goodloe, medical director of the Medical Control Board.
The 11-physician member Medical Control Board establishes clinical standards of care for first responders working for EMSA and fire departments comprising the EMS system or Tulsa, Oklahoma City and surrounding cities. The Emergency Medical Services Authority is a government agency that oversees a contractor providing ambulance service to more than 1.1 million people.
Goodloe, an emergency room physician who teaches at OU's School of Community Medicine, discussed the problem of bed delays with EMSA's board of trustees last week and said comprehensive data is being gathered to address the issue. Goodloe said the bed delays are more common in Tulsa than Oklahoma City.
"Sometimes we have five or six crews literally lined up in the hallway with patients on stretchers."
Read more in Monday's Tulsa World.
Copyright 2012 - Tulsa World, Okla.
