By Tracy Correa and Barbara Anderson, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
Apr. 18–The words on the banner said it all: “The UMC emergency department is closed.”
And that’s when reality hit Jason Ravenscroft, an emergency technician at University Medical Center for 13 years.
At 7 a.m. Tuesday, the doors shut at UMC’s emergency department and trauma center.
“Here’s the reality check,” Ravenscroft said as he and other teary-eyed staff watched the sign — in English, Spanish and Hmong — unfurl atop the outside entry.
Ravenscroft had been so caught up in hectic preparations for the merging of UMC’s services into the expanded Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno that he hadn’t had time to react until he saw the banner.
The closure of the emergency department was the latest step as UMC and Community move to consolidate hospital services. It is part of a long-planned merger between the former county hospital and privately operated Community.
Tuesday was the second day of a three-day effort to relocate UMC patients and transfer trauma services to the downtown hospital.
Community completed a 340,000-square-foot, five-story trauma critical care building in 2004. It had been largely vacant before this week’s move, although the emergency room has been open since 2005.
The day marked the end of an era of emergency care at UMC, including more than two decades as the Level 1 trauma center for the region. The Level 1 designation requires a hospital to have trauma surgeons on-site 24 hours a day and other specialists available to treat people with life-threatening injuries.
Nine burn and pediatric patients were the first to move Monday. The move continued Tuesday with the relocation of about 32 patients from UMC’s intensive care, intermediate care and medical-surgical units to Community by ambulance.
By 4:20 p.m., the last patient of the day had arrived at Community, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The move continues today as patient relocation resumes at 7 a.m., with 30 to 40 patients being transported to Community. Hospital officials said the number is fluid, because some patients may be discharged within the next 24 hours.
UMC will shut down as an acute-care hospital when today’s move is completed. Only outpatient clinic services and a long-term care center will remain.
The trauma center at UMC, which treated patients at risk of death from injury or accident, closed at 4 a.m. Tuesday. Ambulances were directed to Community, which took over trauma services. Emergency patients also were directed to Community.
When the department closed, about five patients were being treated inside, emergency staff said.
Barricades set up around the emergency department entrance were meant to keep more patients from entering. But one patient still slipped inside.
Rodrigo Morales, 43, of Fresno, got into the closed emergency department about 7:40 a.m. He was dropped off by a family member who either didn’t know about the closure or was determined to get him care, hospital staffers said.
Morales’ stomach was hurting, the staff said.
Nurses in the emergency department had anticipated that one or two patients might be unaware of UMC’s emergency closure, so they were prepared.
“We’re gonna take care of him,” said Garth Wade, a registered nurse, who was approached by another staff member about Morales.
Morales was later transferred to Community’s emergency room, said hospital spokeswoman Erin Kennedy.
By about 4 p.m., the effect of UMC’s emergency department closure was clear at Community, where 75 patients had come through the doors — a number that typically would have been split between the two locations.
In the separate trauma area, nurses and doctors didn’t have long to wait for their first patient. A helicopter landed on the roof about 8:30 a.m. with a man injured in a car accident.
In the next three hours, two more patients had been brought by helicopter to the trauma center, and a fourth had arrived by ambulance, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Angela Lakela, a nurse aboard the SkyLife helicopter that delivered the patients Tuesday, said extra staff on hand for Tuesday’s christening of the Community trauma center helped ensure a smooth transition.
Said Lakela: “It’s going to work.”
The reporters can be reached at [email protected], [email protected] or (559) 441-6330.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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