UMC Reaches Full ER Capacity, Diverts Patients Elsewhere
By: Julie Musgrave
Updated: June 24, 2009
It's been an overly busy day at University Medical Center, so much so that emergency room patients are being diverted to other area hospitals.
UMC already had a full surgery schedule to begin the day, and for whatever reason, patients just kept coming into their emergency room -- several having to be treated in hallways.
So the decision was made to divert patients being transported in from New mexico and other regional counties.
Now, the UMC emergency room is still open and treating folks from Lubbock and Lubbock County, but capacity is a real issue.
Greg Bruce, University Medical Center: "We will continue to watch capacity issues for the near future. It will be something that we will monitor on an ongoing basis, because the safety of our patients is our primary concern. So we're always going to monitor and make sure that we have adequate resources -- space, staff, and supplies, to take care of our patients."
Folks at UMC have already started construction on an ER expansion, that's expected to be finished in September.
