Hospitals turning patients away

Published 11:25 pm Thursday, February 14, 2008

Hospitals in Snohomish County are reporting that they’re jammed to capacity this week, with part of the overload caused by patients hospitalized for complications from influenza and other seasonal viruses.

At Providence Everett Medical Center, the county’s biggest hospital, nurses and other staff are working overtime to keep up with demand.

“What’s different about this week is we typically have a day or two where we’re at or near capacity,” Kim Williams, chief nurse executive. “We’re in about day four of being at or near capacity.”

Just about every department in the hospital is affected by the patient crunch, including doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists and the X-ray department, said Dr. Lawrence Schecter, Providence’s chief medical officer.

With the hospital brimming with patients, “it really is all hands on deck,” Williams said.

On Monday, Providence Everett Medical Center treated and then transferred two patients to Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue because of lack of space.

And four other patients were lined up in the hospital’s emergency room Thursday morning, waiting for beds to open up.

Monroe’s Valley General Hospital has been close to capacity for general hospital patients but has been forced to send ­critical-care patients elsewhere this week because of lack of available beds.

“Everybody wonders when things are going to settle down,” said Brenda Rogers, clinical nurse executive at Valley General.

Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington was at capacity and had several patients queued up in the emergency room, waiting for beds to open up on Thursday.

Hospitals often get jammed in the winter, when viruses cause extra patients to be admitted to the hospital.

But other factors are also playing a role in jamming hospitals and their emergency rooms, hospital officials said. These include the region’s booming population, the nursing shortage and an emphasis on outpatient procedures that, until recently, kept hospitals from adding more rooms.

Both Providence Everett Medical Center and Cascade Valley Hospital now have building programs under way.

It isn’t just hospitals in Snohomish County that are filled to capacity. Hospitals are packed “all the way up the I-5 corridor,” Schecter said.

Earlier this week, the Everett hospital got a call from a hospital in British Columbia that was looking for a spot for a crucial care patient because no space was available at any hospital in the province, Williams said.

“We said at the time we didn’t have any critical care capacity here,” she said.

Dr. Keith Luther, who works at Stevens Center for Internal Medicine, said that there’s always a hospital somewhere with space to treat a patient.

But the high number of patients now being treated at area hospitals can cause short-term jam-ups. As one example, Stevens Hospital’s intensive care unit had every bed occupied earlier this week, he said.

“The whole hospital has been full — at capacity — for the last week or two, he said.

“I know they’ve also cleared a bunch of beds today,” he said. “But that could change tomorrow.”

Dr. Yuan-Po Tu, who works at The Everett Clinic, said he knew of one Snohomish County patient who had to be admitted to Northwest Hospital in Seattle earlier this week because the Edmonds and Everett hospitals were closed to new patients.

“I think everybody is just very, very busy,” he said.

The emergency department at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle has had a 22 percent increase in patients in January over the same period last year, said spokeswoman Louise Maxwell.

The hospital has been unusually busy treating patients with winter viruses and respiratory infections, she said.

Harborview Medical Center in Seattle reported that it, too, is jammed, with some patients waiting in the emergency department for hospital rooms.

Chris Martin, administrative director of emergency services, said that a check of the hospital’s database Thursday afternoon showed three hospitals in King County were closed to admitting new patients.

Hospitals in King County have struggled with capacity issues since November, Martin said.

“When some of the other hospitals start to close down, then one hospital can be overwhelmed very quickly,” she said. “One hospital can’t take all the ambulance traffic for the entire city of Seattle.”

Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.