BALTIMORE — Heather Patti was volunteering at an event in August when she passed out, perhaps from heat exhaustion, and ended up in the ER at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center.
She said she waited with a paramedic for about 45 minutes in the triage area, then was put in a wheelchair with about 60 other people. Patti, who is a retired nurse, wasn't being monitored by anyone, and had an IV but wasn't getting fluids or being checked on.
"After about 2 hours of sitting there by myself and just feeling absolutely exhausted, I, as a nurse, just figured, 'I just want to go home; I'm tired; I can deal with this on my own,'" she said.
The next day, she was "very surprised and upset" to find that her lab work showed her potassium level was almost critical, which could have put her in a lethal heart rhythm. Her blood sugar was also low at the time.
"So there I am, unmonitored, just sitting in a waiting room for hours at a time...I could have gone into like a coma or something from my blood sugar being really low. So it makes you wonder how many people with no medical training would just sit there and wait and have something happen."
As concerns over Baltimore-area hospital wait times grew in the wake of COVID, local leaders have struggled to address the challenges.
The Baltimore County Fire Department just announced that it will launch a Medical Duty Officer position April 2 at the 911 dispatch center. The hope is that the officer will help move EMS units more efficiently and help reduce hospital wait times.
"The time required to offload patients to area hospitals has been growing due to an ongoing increase in medical calls and hospital staffing shortages," the fire department said in a press release today. "The longer EMS crews must wait to deliver patients to the hospital, the longer it takes to get them back on the road, responding to other EMS calls."
The officer will continue the current practice of trying to send patients to the hospital of their choice, but will sometimes send them to a different hospital if there are staffing and demand issues. Patients with serious medical conditions who were discharged within 30 days will be returned to the hospital where they were originally treated.
The Medical Duty Officer position is being funded through the federal COVID relief act.
Heather Patti, the retired nurse who is also president of the White Marsh-Cowenton Community Association, said the rise in medical service calls creates a major problem in Baltimore County.
She urged residents of northeast Baltimore County to testify at a county budget hearing last month on the need for more healthcare facilities. She pointed out that Baltimore County has seen "tremendous growth" on the east side since 1980 especially, but only has one police department for White Marsh, Perry Hall and (partly) Middle River. White Marsh also has one volunteer fire department, despite now getting about 2,500 medical calls a year.
Patti said in her testimony: "Baltimore County needs to adjudicate funding and collaborate with the state of Maryland to conduct a study and provide funding for a new hospital/healthcare facility(ies) for Eastern Baltimore County. The current facility (Franklin Square Hospital) is inadequate for the current population as evidenced by unsafe ER wait times, lack of adequate skilled bed availability and services per ratio to resident. This not only puts the lives of Baltimore County residents in jeopardy but also puts the licenses of healthcare providers in jeopardy."
