SAN DIEGO — Overcrowding in the emergency room at UC San Diego Health's La Jolla hospital is forcing patients to be treated in the hallways.
Nurses have been protesting the conditions for months.
A CBS 8 reporter witnessed the overcrowding firsthand last week when his mother was injured and had to be admitted to UC San Diego Health's emergency department next to Jacobs Medical Center.
She was taken to the ER with a broken hand and abrasions after taking a nasty fall in her garden. The reporter’s mother asked that her name not be used in this report.
For six hours, the 89-year-old was treated in the ER hallway with other patients nearby. She received x-rays in a nearby room. An ER nurse wrapped her hand and arm in a splint in hallway. Bandages were placed on her arms and legs in the hallway. Multiple patients shared a hallway restroom.
The reporter sat next to his mother in a folding chair in the hallway the entire time.
“We want the public to know that the ER is overwhelmingly overcrowded,” said Maria Tan, a UC San Diego Health ER charge nurse.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, we don't have an open room for patients that are going to be in the hallway in a chair for hours and hours,” said Tan.
More than a dozen patients – some in gurneys, others in reclining medical chairs – lined the ER hallways on the evening the CBS 8 reporter was inside the UC San Diego Health emergency department.
Tan said more than 70 percent of the patients on gurneys in the hallways are waiting for rooms to open up so they can be admitted to the hospital. Sometimes patients have to wait three to five days in the hallway. Sometimes nurses have to change bedpans in the hallways, Tan said.
Back in March, nurses held a picket outside UC San Diego Health in La Jolla to protest hallways being used to treat as many as 75 patients, according to a news release by the union, California Nurses Association.
The nurses marched in front of the UC San Diego ER and also talked about privacy concerns.
“Sick and vulnerable patients are forced to discuss intimate health details with us with strangers able to overhear,” UC San Diego Health nurse Denise Valenzuela told reporters during the march.
The La Jolla hospital has been using a tent set up in the parking lot as an overflow ER, which nurses said can hold about 12 patients.
Inside the ER, signs with letters and numbers are posted every few feet on the hallway walls designating patient positions.
“It used to be just ‘W’. Now it’s W-1, W-2, 3, 4, 5,” said Tan.
UC San Diego Health emailed CBS 8 the following statement:
"The safety of our patients, visitors and team members is UC San Diego Health’s first priority. We value the commitment and input of our dedicated nurses and are actively addressing their concerns.
Like hospitals throughout California and across the nation, UC San Diego Health is currently experiencing unprecedented demand for its medical and surgical care, a need which is outpacing available hospital beds. The impact is most visible in our Emergency Departments (ED), where we are seeing a high influx of patients with acute illnesses and conditions that require hospitalization.
Around the clock, UC San Diego Health is taking every measure possible to care for these patients and attend to their comfort and needs. UC San Diego Health carefully tracks bed availability, patient discharges, planned procedures, supplies, and other data to make timely decisions to expedite bed availability.
Based on need, UC San Diego Health is, when possible, staffing above required nursing ratios to support patient safety and quality of care. Temporary use of overflow areas and periodic ambulance diversion are also being used when necessary. A pilot 'UCSD at Home' program is also being utilized to allow certain patients with less acute issues to be safely cared for outside of the ED with a combination of telemedicine and home visits.
It is important for our patients and the public to be aware that there are multiple options to receive same-day care for minor health issues, including urgent care, express care and video visits. We encourage our community to reserve the ED for potentially life-threatening issues or severe illness or injury that requires immediate attention."
CBS 8 asked a UC San Diego Health spokesperson why the ER conditions had not changed since March, when nurses first started protesting, and when UC San Diego Health issued a similar statement claiming "unprecedented demand for its medical and surgical care." The UC San Diego Health spokesperson issued a follow-up response:
"(T)here is a continued demand for emergency care, statewide and nationally. Patients arriving to the emergency room setting are in need of a higher level of care. Some patients are discharged to long-term care facilities that may or may not have available beds at the time of discharge, which can result in delays. Additionally, smaller hospitals are closing services, which we have seen in San Diego.
UC San Diego Health is constantly balancing critical needs in the emergency department and other areas of the hospital. We have a comprehensive discharge process in place and continue to evolve workflows in order to expedite discharges. We have also developed a sophisticated AI-based predictive model that is able to forecast and implement various processes to address surges in patient flow.
It is important to remind the community that there are multiple options to receive same-day care for minor health issues, including urgent care, express care and video visits. We encourage our community to reserve the emergency department for potentially life-threatening issues or severe illness or injury that requires immediate attention."
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