1600 mile transfer for bed

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

When I got to work last night we had a direct admission on our bed board for a patient who was 1600 miles away. They were awaiting med flight and we were the ONLY facility in the country willing to accept this transfer according to the report I received. (Granted they couldn't have had the capability to contact every hospital in the country but it sounds like they reached out to MANY health systems and within our hospital system we were the only one with an open bed) I realize that is not to say that we were the only open ICU bed in the country, but this is getting really bizarre and a little scary. This will be the third patient (out of 12) in our unit who comes from over 100 miles away because basically my system will not turn away anyone with $$ following them. We are lucky that right now we're doing okay here (in the northeast), but the supervisor said there were another 15 patients on the floor that would normally be in ICU because of their current oxygen requirements and condition. We're going to start ending up with patients on ventilators NOT in ICU and our nursing/RT staff is going to be quickly stretched too thin. My heart goes out to those right in the thick of things right now, I hope that things make a drastic turn for the better soon. 

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

This is indeed scary and just what many of us fear. What happens when a loved one is in a car wreck or has a cardiac event requiring ICU/hospitalization? Where will that put them?

We have had a purple heart veteran die of gallstone pancreatitis waiting for a bed already. How many more will die waiting for care?

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
34 minutes ago, SmilingBluEyes said:

How many more will die waiting for care?

The story of the veteran is so sad. And how many nurses will be faced with patients deteriorating on the floors with nowhere to send them? It's going to be stressful for the nurses and unsafe for patients as resources just aren't there. 

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Specializes in NICU.
3 hours ago, JBMmom said:

(Granted they couldn't have had the capability to contact every hospital in the country but it sounds like they reached out to MANY health systems and within our hospital system we were the only one with an open bed) I realize that is not to say that we were the only open ICU bed in the country

My assumption is that your facility was the only facility with an open ICU bed within your hospital system. They want to keep the money within the system instead of giving away the money to a competitor.

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Specializes in ER.

When we talked about a lack of beds we are really talking about a lack of staff. When the media says all the beds in the state are filled, that means all the beds that actually have staff to take care of the patient are filled. Of course there is less staff now because people are fleeing the profession.

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Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.
5 minutes ago, Emergent said:

When we talked about a lack of beds we are really talking about a lack of staff. When the media says all the beds in the state are filled, that means all the beds that actually have staff to take care of the patient are filled. Of course there is less staff now because people are fleeing the profession.

Sometimes it's both - my hospital is both struggling with staffing, and every bed (with the exception of a few on our covid/isolation unit) is full (but we can't use those for non-covid patients due to infection risk).    We're under pressure to take even more patients and to admit them faster - my question is where are we to put them? We're working on opening more units (on property owned by hospital, but units are needing to be physically built out and staff hired), so it'll still be another couple of months before those are up and running. 

It gets to a point though were staffed beds vs physical beds is semantics - if you don't have people to care for patients - the physical beds don't do much on their own thus you can't actually provide care to any more patients realistically. 

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Specializes in EM.

I  work in a semi rural hospital in CA as an EM Physician. Transfers of greater than 100 miles are common, happening about once every three of my shifts. In normal times, hospitals are operating at near capacity. With the pandemic, hospitals are full. EMTALA which is the law regarding transfers is a federal statute. Transfers across state lines are becoming common. The OP implies that their system is accepting patients based on a financial metric; I am happy when any system accepts patients for care my hospital cannot provide. 

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