Baltimore County Fire Department implements plan to reduce wait times at local hospitals
BALTIMORE -- First, there was the COVID-19 pandemic, then the winter triple-demic, which included COVID-19, SRV, and the flu. These back-to-back health crises have generated an increase in medical calls and a decrease in staffing.
Wait times at hospitals have soared across the nation, even in Maryland.
Now, a local fire department is stepping in and hoping to get people the help they need faster.
The Baltimore County Fire Department has created a new position to address the problem.
A new medical duty officer will be tasked with overseeing the capacity of the local hospitals and coordinating where patients should be taken so that they can quickly receive the care they need.
On any given day in Maryland, the wait times at a hospital can be dangerously high.
"We're seeing the burden still from COVID. but we're also seeing an issue with patients that seem to be sicker these days," Bureau Chief Danielle Knatz said. "They're requiring more time in the hospital and hospitals are just overwhelmed."
Plus, the longer it takes for EMS crews to deliver a patient to a hospital, the longer it takes for them to get back on the road responding to calls.
But starting next week, two medical duty officers will begin working as pseudo air traffic controllers, facilitating where crews can take patients based on hospital capacity.
"We are hopeful we can get patients seen quicker and offloaded quicker," Knatz said.
Getting emergency room patients the care they need in a timely fashion has been a concern for hospitals across the state.
"We are seeing unprecedented volume of everything both psychiatric and medical complaints," Esti Shabelman, the chief medical officer of Sinai Hospital and Grace Medical Center, said.
Shabelman said Maryland's wait times are ranked among the worst in the country. Patients are waiting for hours to be seen, she said.
"We end up needing to admit more people. which makes the hospital more full, which makes the wait times longer," Shabelman said.
Knatz said she hopes the medical duty officer can help ease the burden of overcrowded hospitals.
The Baltimore County Fire Department's medical duty officers will begin their new jobs on April 2.
The fire department hopes to increase its medical duty squad to 10 to 15 officers.