SUN Staff Report
5/7/09
Española Hospital paramedics were unable to respond to three emergency calls and one non-emergency hospital-to-hospital patient transfer between April 23 and 30, according to a Hospital ambulance call log. Paramedics were also delayed in responding to an emergency call April 27.
The Hospital’s two ambulance crews were busy with hospital-to-hospital patient transfers to Santa Fe and emergency calls in Lindrith, Española and Chimayo when the emergency calls came in from Gallina, Española and Upper San Pedro Road south of Española.
The April 30 emergency call to which Hospital paramedics were unable to respond involved a cardiac arrest, according to the Hospital log.
Superior Ambulance Service sent an ambulance from Santa Fe to transfer a Hospital patient to Albuquerque, according to the log. But Superior has not been contracted to provide ambulance service to the Hospital on a regular basis, Hospital Emergency Medical Services Director Bill Mauldin and Hospital board member Ray Chavez said.
Paramedics would not discuss the details of the missed calls.
Former Hospital Administrator Derrick Yu, who resigned May 1, had ordered cuts to paramedic’s overtime starting March 9, reducing the Hospital’s daytime ambulance fleet from three to two vehicles.
Yu had predicted that the policy would not cause emergency response delays. However, Hospital paramedics have been delayed or been unable to respond to 27 calls since the cost-saving policy went into effect, the log shows.