Patient Volumes

[one_speed]

Well, as I'm sure we all know, Christmas has come and gone. Boxing day, of course has proved to be one of the busiest days of the year in our regional ER / trauma center. No walk-in clinics or doctors offices open x 3 days so everybody and their dog decides to come to the ER to be checked over.

All of the people (so many kids !) who didn't want to ruin their families christmas came in after lingering at home for three days and of course need to be admitted for something that could have been dealt with easily as an outpatient three days ago.

Today we hit a new record. 365 people assessed in the ER in a 24 hour period, most over the day shift. Typical average is between 230 - 250 / day. All these people with only an average 5 - 6 hour wait for a room.

The last record was set three days after moving to our new hospital in 2002 and that was 309 people in a 24 hour period (Imagine this with a totally disorganised system in place after amalgamating 2 hospitals and ER departments only three days before).

We are a medium sized regional ER, servicing a city of 115,000, and a cachement area approx 250,000 square kilometers. So, of course no other hopsitals to divert to !

The Insanity !!!

We talk of differing sizes of Emergency Departments / Hospitals, but what would you think the average number of people you serve on a daily basis ?

What is considered "busy" in your center ?

[scrmblr]

I don't have the exact numbers in yet... Yesterday was absolutely insane. We were short one tech. Our ER is smallish-We have 14 beds and 4 fast track beds. EVERY bed was full ALL day yesterday. At one time we had 12 people in the tracker (waiting for triage) and 7 triaged and waiting for beds. No one got lunch. No one got breaks. I ate standing up when I started shaking from low blood sugar:lol

crazy profession we have chosen:rolleyes:

[Djuna]

I work in a small rural hospital servicing a population of around 25,000. On average we see approximately 70-90 people per day but the majority of these are really General Practitioner cases, headaches and other minor ailments.

I do see a lot of chest pains and a few decent traumas but I can imagine it would be nothing like a bigger hospital.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I worked in a level one trauma center for 10 years and in 2006, they expect to see 65,000 visits. That averages to 178 visits per day. I quit in July 06 and in the last 10 years our record was 270 visits in a 24 hour period.

[Aliakey]

The hospital I'm at is a Level II serving a population of 201,000 (city) plus additional populations from the rural counties and even the neighboring state (Air Flights). There also exists a Level 1 hospital and two smaller hospitals (a six bed ER level IV and a four bed level ?? heart hospital) just a short distance away. On the average, our patients are triaged and in back within ten minutes on arrival. But on Dec 26 (day after Christmas), the triage area exceeded 40+ patients (computer could only list that many patients at once), it was standing room conditions, and every bed in back/hall (30+) save one of the six Trauma rooms was full at all times. Waiting times on the average was 5 to six hours.

Four overdoses (suicidal), many traumas, the "stomach bug" pukers, and one patient with "too much intoxicating Christmas cheer" (she had no hesitiation in grabbing the backsides of young unsuspecting male Paramedics for her own holiday cheer as well).

Whew! I'm glad that day was over!