HUDSON — Columbia Memorial Health has resumed diverting some non-emergency patients to other medical facilities as the number of COVID-related cases grows, CMH spokesman Bill Van Slyke said Tuesday.
In this case, the diversions are used only on occasion as a way of easing the strain on hospital services.
The Emergency Department at Columbia Memorial Health is one of the busiest emergency care centers in the Hudson Valley region.
“Like hospitals nearly everywhere, we are seeing increased volumes of COVID and non-COVID illnesses,” Van Slyke said. “The occasional use of diversion helps us better balance patient load across our system and the region. We reassess the need for diversion every four hours.”
Columbia Memorial has 26 COVID-19 in-patients as of Tuesday morning, Van Slyke said. The Columbia County Department of Health reported 13 of the county’s 26 COVID hospitalizations are at CMH.
“It’s very important to note that nearly all of our COVID positive in-patients are unvaccinated,” Van Slyke said. “We are encouraging everyone in our community who is eligible for the vaccine to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible. The vaccine is safe, free and very effective in preventing serious illness. Much of the surge that the entire health care system is experiencing right now can be mitigated by vaccination.”
CMH serves residents from several nearby counties. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 71.2% of all Columbia County residents are fully vaccinated. In Greene County, 59.7% of all county residents are fully vaccinated.
Because of the diversion protocol, Columbia Memorial is seeing patients in person at the Catskill and Valatie rapid care centers, Van Slyke said.
“What that actually does for our ambulance services throughout the county is make them travel obviously farther distance to transport a patient, to a hospital, maybe in the Albany area or the southern district,” Columbia County Emergency Medical Services Coordinator P.J. Keeler said. “Instead of having quick off-load times for a patient at a local ER, they are forced to travel maybe an hour to another hospital.
An ambulance traveling an hour to bring a patient to a hospital means it has to travel another hour to come back, Keeler added, which means it is out of service for a couple of hours.
“The diversions are statewide,” Keeler said. “I get notices everyday probably of eight to 12 hospitals that are on diversions throughout the northern part of New York state, seems to be particularly difficult at this time in the Central New York Area.”