Why Does A Hospital Go On Bypass?

[jjudson]

Every now and then I hear an announcement that my local hospital is on bypass. Other hospitals announce that, too. Right now, my local hospital is on bypass until 2115 (it is now 1933). There have been no major incidents in the area.

Why is this?

 

[N_Jay]

Beds vs. patents, vs. staffing

 

[K8PBX]

Not sure if this is it... but, it's a term I've heard used when a facility is off the power grid and running on UPS and/or generator power.

 

[n5ims]

One possibility

A neighbor was a nurse that worked at a small hospital. They at times went on "reserve only" - also called "bypass" during staff meetings or other times when their only ER doctor may not be able to respond quickly to an emergency. This allowed the local EMS to route patients to other hospitals that had more capacity at the time.

 

[zerobleu]

If it's what I think it is, our hospitals call it "Diversion". Usually means the hospital can not accept any more patients in that specific wing. In other words there are no more beds in the service that is on diversion. They go on diversion quite often, not just because of MCI's (mass casualty incidents), it may just mean alot of people have been brought into the ER that day.

 

[mikeydcg2003]

Being close to Des Moines, i have the Des Moines Area Fire/EMS dispatches on my mobile. i have heard both hospitals go on what des moines calles a Total Bypass which means no one no if's ands or buts. Normally they don't give a spefic time, they usually just redispatch that they are back open again. Wouldn't suprize me to hear a hospital in DSM to go on bypass, lots of silly people around here.. j/k

 

[hoser147]

Bypass or Diversion is were swamped you can go to next closest hospital. Usually it is pertaining to the ER.............Hoser147

 

[pinetree]

I have found that in my area that the cause of this is the fact that hospital admin. dont want to hire the staff to meet the needs of the people they serve.
Also they cannot refuse to see anyone who comes to their doors, but they try to use the ambulances to take the patients elsewhere. It doesnt seem to bother them that someone may die because the ambulances and medic units may be on the road to some distant hospital when they are needed in their area. I could go on with a book of examples but enough said.

 

[n5usr]

They use "divert" here (OKC) as well. "Total divert" for unable to accept anything, but I've also heard "partial diverts" and the dispatcher will tell the units what things (cardiac, trauma, etc) that hospital isn't taking.

Lately, I've heard some units just ask "is XXX hospital open?"

A friend who worked at a hospital out in the boondocks (and thus a long way from another hospital) said once that they HAD to take life-threatening immediate-care-needed patients - didn't matter their in-house situation, or if they were really equipped to handle that sort of injury. They would patch the person up as best possible then get them ready for the ambulance or helicopter ride into OKC.

 

[Gilby]

Why does a hospital go on "bypass?"

Hello group, one of my first postings. In and around the Dayton Ohio area we go on "re-route." This usaually rotates from one hospital to another. Like the others have said it is usually a bed vs staff vs ??? situation. I work in a small hospital in West central Ohio. If we have to send a patient to a Dayton hospital and that one is on re-route our computers are hooked up to a central compter at GDAHA (Greater Dayton area hospital association) that tells of any re-route activity. This is something like 20 hospitals that cooperate with this! On the local EMS dispatches in Miami county Ohio the dispatchers also have acess to this information. Thank for sharing your info. TTFN gilby

 

[garys]

Hospitals are only supposed to go on diversion because their Emergency Department is overloaded, but in reality they go on divert when the ED is overcrowded or the units or floor are overloaded. In reality, it's a courtesy because hospitals can't refuse to see patients in their EDs. EMTs and medics can do their best to talk the patient into going to another hospital, but in the end it's really the patient's decision.

That's a general statement and in different parts of the country details may differ, but that's it in a nutshell.

 

[BJ_NORTON]

I've never heard of the hospital totally telling ambulances to go away here in las vegas, but they have a color code wait time. If the hospital is green wait time is 0-20 minutes, yellow 20-40, red 40-60, and black is more than 60. During the waiting time the ambulance crew has to care for the patient, so they kinda let the ambulance decide for themselves. :lol: I've heard the trauma ERs tell the ambulance that they are full, but in those cases, they just drive around the building to the regular emergency room, or the pediatric ER.

 

[cavis]

Here in central WV, the hospitals go on diversion when the ER is full. Now, that doesn't mean that they won't take a patient, but the patient's condition will need to correlate with the hospital's specialty. We have three main hospitals in Charleston: Charleston Area Medical Center General Division (level 1 trauma center), CAMC Memorial (specializing in more medical based issues, like heart attacks, strokes, geriatric, etc), and CAMC Women's and Children's Division (self explanatory). So, if Grandma is having chest pains and wants to go to General, and General is on diversion, she goes to Memorial. But if she is a car wreck patient being flown in, then she goes to General. There are other hospitals in the area, but those three are the big players.

I worked as an EMT for a few years, so that all comes from experience.

 

[ibagli]

In Columbus, if a certain number of hospitals go on diversion, the city goes on "citywide diversion" and fire dispatch starts rotating ambulances between hospitals. My local hospital (only one within 30-40 miles) tried going on diversion once, but it failed miserably because the only people who would even consider allowing the ambulance to take them elsewhere were the ones already halfway to the other hospitals.

 

[Viper43]

If it's what I think it is, our hospitals call it "Diversion". Usually means the hospital can not accept any more patients in that specific wing. In other words there are no more beds in the service that is on diversion. They go on diversion quite often, not just because of MCI's (mass casualty incidents), it may just mean alot of people have been brought into the ER that day.

In Indy it's a normal day to have one or two hosptals on diversion.... Especially Wishard. I spent 16 hours in that ER before being seen, then it took another two hours to get a shot. Talk about sloooooow! But even Hancock Regional is pokey, waited 4 hours for them to take care of a friends broken hand, there was only two other people in there the whole time. 4 nurses and one doctor. And when I had shoulder surgery there it took them 6 hours before they remembered to call my ride to pick me up.... 2 1/2 hours longer than operation took.

V

 

[CyberGoth1440]

Happens here in Birmingham quiet often. From what I understand Birmingham Regional Emergency Medical Services System (BREMSS), which is operated by the University of Alabama Birmingham hospital directs patient destinations based on availability of resources using the LifeTrac computer system.
We call it "diversion" here; Trauma, MED-SURG, PSYCH, & ER are the most commonly heard.

 

[Jay911]

Calgary, Alberta is a city of a million+ people also servicing another couple hundred thousand in the outlying countryside of rural southern Alberta. At present we have 3 adult hospitals and one children's hospital. Wait times often go into the 'hours' stage; I had a crew the other night (while I was dispatching EMS) that was in the hospital waiting with a stroke patient for over 4 1/2 hours.

They don't call it 'diversion' here because they think 'avoidance' sounds better.

One other adult hospital was present in the inner city when I moved here in 1990, but it was closed down in the late 1990s (and the building demolished). There's another one being built in the city's deep south, and it'll be ready in 2011 or so - or right about the time that either another one needs to be built to handle the growth in between now and then, or another one needs to be blown up to fit the government's wacky schedule.

 

[loumaag]

I read all the responses here with interest as this topic come up quite often at home, (my wife is a Emg Nurse Practitioner). I agree that bypass is probably like diversion or avoidance or... well you get the idea. Different areas call the same thing different things, and as couple of people pointed out it really is not a hard and fast rule but more of a guidance thing. I mean if an ambulance backed up to the doors of an ER they have to take the patient, if they refuse or send it somewhere else it is called "dumping" and can involve a fairly expensive fine for doing it.

I got to thinking about the wait times noted above, my wife used to work at the ER in Charity Hospital, New Orleans. It, along with Cook Co. in Chicago and a couple of others around the country were documented to be the highest volume trauma centers around. The average wait at Charity's ER for a routine thing, like a broken arm or something, was in the 18 hour range. Other less acute ailments could make your wait be even longer. Now if you showed up with a GSW they could deal with you pretty quickly, but back to the topic; they never went on diversion, they just accepted anything through the door and after triage, you were either seen quickly or not. It was not unusual to see people show up (walk-ins) carrying food for a couple of meal times.

 

[spiritwolfpr]

hello Friends:

Loumaag you then should see how it is In the Mediac Center in
Puerto Rico it is the place were must Trauma patient go to.
for some wierd reason fridays is the most bussy of the days I have seen
GSW trown in a corner with very basic first aid done if anything, the
smell is over powering.Most of the time it is on "Fly By" No good no good at all.

 

[scanfan03]

I hear hospitols go on divert all the time down here in northwest Houston. I've never ever heard of anyone dying because of a hospitol going on divert like someone mentioned above.