Realllly Full

Recall we've got 19 official beds, plus 3 add-on beds and 2 "chairs", plus 2 fast track rooms, a family room and a fast track office.

Stopped by to borrow a bicycle this morning and we had: 20 inpatient boarders and a total of 40 patients as boarders, ER patients, and patients "ramped" (still on EMS stretchers) and in the waiting room. 4 of the boarders were in the fastrack rooms, office, and family room so Fastrack was out of action except for the waiting room and hallway chairs.

So the hospital had finally gone onto "Capacity Emergency" status. No other hospitals in Lonnie, so no local EMS divert. But, no patients accepted as referrals from the little outside hospitals or from GP offices. Some of the really small hospitals might be able to get help from a bigger small hospital (i.e. one with no lab or x-ray might send to a small but better resourced small hospital), but most would mean flights to Hobart or to Melbourne.

More importantly, the status puts pressure on inpatient teams to discharge, and to inpatient floors to accept inpatients to hallway bed status on the inpatient floors.

It's remarkable to me that despite the very different structural patterns and financing patterns of medicine in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia - the overcrowding issue is the same everywhere.