By Bob Groves
The Record
Copyright 2007 The Record
WESTWOOD, N.J. — Neighboring hospitals may be handling the increased patient load from defunct Pascack Valley Hospital, but rescue workers in North Jersey say they are feeling the strain.
Ambulance drivers and emergency medical technicians report that since bankrupt Pascack Valley in Westwood closed on Nov. 21, their round trips to other hospitals take longer, and emergency departments are more crowded.
While the average ambulance run to Pascack Valley and back was an hour, it now takes at least 90 minutes for round trips to the next-closest hospitals — The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood or Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, said Marion Roe, a veteran Park Ridge EMT.
“Our run times have increased,” said Roe, 54, captain of the Tri-boro Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which services Park Ridge, Montvale and Woodcliff Lake.
“I don’t want to sound trite,” Roe said. “But I’m a volunteer. I have four kids. I’d like to be able to come home and throw in a load of laundry.
“But if I’ve got to run to Englewood or Hackensack or Holy Name [in Teaneck], there goes my load of laundry.”
Trauma cases go to Hackensack University Medical Center, she said. Hackensack is providing high quality care to the residents of the Pascack Valley region “with our outstanding paramedic services,” Nancy Radwin, a spokeswoman, said in a statement.
The EMTs’ workload has increased 25 percent since Pascack Valley closed, and winter has barely begun, Roe said. “We haven’t seen the flu hit, or the heart attacks and slip-and-falls of weekend warriors who like to go out and shovel snow.”
Meanwhile, despite increased staffs and hardworking doctors and nurses, EMTs say they are seeing more patients waiting on stretchers and beds in overcrowded emergency rooms.
“What we’re seeing is constant diverts and bypasses by local hospitals common for this time of year,” said Milton N. Kohlmann, an EMT and an officer of the Pascack Valley Ambulance Association, which includes 21 towns in North Jersey.
“The closing of Pascack Valley makes it that much more difficult,” Kohlmann said. “Although the other hospitals are all increasing their capability to accept patients, there’s one less facility for us to go to.”
New Jersey law requires hospital emergency departments to accept all patients. But a hospital may go on a two-hour, renewable bypass status when it believes its emergency department is at full capacity. In that situation, the hospital advises ambulances to go elsewhere.
A hospital generally goes on an eight-hour, renewable divert status when its entire facility, particularly available patient beds, are at full capacity, Kohlmann said.
Despite more patients showing up at their doors, the five hospitals remaining open in Bergen County reported last month that they were handling the increase. They were prepared for the overflow well before the 48-year-old, 280-bed Pascack Valley Hospital closed — overwhelmed by a $100 million debt.
Patient volume has increased between 10 percent and 15 percent at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center; and more than 7 percent at The Valley Hospital. Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus has seen an increase of more than 7 percent in patient volume in its emergency department, and a 17 percent increase in hospital admissions.
Holy Name in Teaneck has experienced a surge in surgical, medical and maternity patients, but not in the emergency department. Hackensack University Medical Center would not comment whether it was affected directly by Pascack Valley’s closing.
Englewood has experienced only “a handful of diverts and bypasses” in recent months, said Maria Margiotta, a spokeswoman.
“Our diverts did not increase during October and November, even when the closing of Pascack Valley was imminent,” Margiotta said. Diverts at Englewood were less this year than last, she said.
“We’re managing the increased patient volume quite well.”
EMTs and patients, however, have experienced overcrowding at The Valley Hospital.
Cindy Caiafa of Ridgewood went to the Valley emergency department with severe pain in her hand a week after Pascack Valley closed.
“It was very crowded at 6:45 a.m.; it was bizarre,” Caiafa, 45, said. Caiafa said she was initially processed fairly quickly when she arrived. But as the day wore on, more patients arrived, and she was not finished and out of the hospital until 4 p.m., she said.
“The staff did a fantastic job with this constant influx, but there was not enough room to house all the people coming in. The staff people carting me back and forth said there had been a tremendous increase in the numbers of incoming patients since Pascack Valley closed its doors,” Caiafa said.
“These people are crackerjacks at handling emergencies,” she said. “But I found it very odd that the hallways were lined up with stretchers, and people were standing around waiting to get their treatment.”
Valley declined to comment, said Anne Monaghan, a spokeswoman.
Bill Kroepke, captain of the Washington Township Volunteer Ambulance Corps, concurred with Caiafa. “If you go to Valley Hospital, there’s been patients on hospital beds lined up in the hallway since Pascack Valley closed,” said Kroepke, an ambulance driver for 39 of his 67 years. “They are handling the load, but I’ll tell you, it’s a strain,” he said.
The burnout factor has not overtaken ambulance crews since Pascack Valley closed, but it’s gaining on them, Roe of Tri-Boro said.
“We like to ride volunteer, because we enjoy the volunteer effort,” she said. “We like to help our neighbors.
“Right now, we’re not hurting. But this is going to impact me in the future as far as getting volunteers. We don’t want to be out 12 hours a day. It’s exhausting.”