The state Public Regulation Commission has not completed its investigation into Española Hospital’s reduced paramedic staffing, Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. said earlier this month.
Block had expected the investigation to be completed by June 26, he said.
“The investigation’s not done, but we’re not getting any consumer complaints about ambulance delays either,” Block said. “If anybody has a complaint, they should call my office.”
The Hospital has used only two ambulances to cover Rio Arriba since March 9 when former Hospital administrator Derrick Yu’s decision to cut paramedic overtime hours led to a corresponding cut in ambulances from three to two. The cuts would save the Hospital nearly $100,000, Yu said.
However, the Hospital is spending $950,000 in County taxpayer mil levy money to build a new, state-of-the-art sleep disorders clinic that will add two beds to the existing sleep clinic. (See related story.) The Hospital has requested $6.5 million from County mil levy money for fiscal year 2010, which extends from July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010. Of that $6.5 million, the Hospital plans to spend $362,610 on ambulance services, according to a Presbyterian document.
The cut in ambulance services had alarmed Rio Arriba County Emergency Manager Mateo DeVargas and Española Fire Chief John Kitchen, who predicted the cuts would cause delays in emergency response times.
Yu had predicted that ambulance service delays would not occur. But between March 9 and May 10, Hospital paramedics were delayed in responding or unable to respond to at least 35 emergency calls, a Hospital pending call log showed. The Hospital stopped releasing response time data after May 10.
Presbyterian was reviewing patients’ charts to determine whether delays in ambulance response times were affecting patients’ clinical outcomes, Presbyterian Vice President Robert Garcia said in April. Garcia said the study could be completed as early as early June, but Presbyterian Spokesman Todd Sandman said July 1 that the study was still under way.
Last month, Commission spokesman Paul Carbajal had said the Hospital was planning to bring back an ambulance, but that has yet to happen. Hospital officials and Hospital Board Chairman Ray Chavez did not return calls for comment.
Block Jr. can be contacted at 827-4533.