PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, AUGUST 27, 2021
MCFD1 asking people to reserve 911
calls for life-threatening emergencies
only transport people to an emergency
room when necessary.
"I have instructed our personnel to
evaluate patients and transport only
when necessary. You may be asked to
stay home, isolate and call your physi-
cian for further direction. If you (are)
present with any life-threatening emer-
gencies our staff will transport you
immediately and we will never deny
transport if another viable agreed-upon
solution cannot be found," Bjorklund
wrote.
Salem Hospital has seen a consis-
tently high number of patients in its
emergency room since March accord-
ing to Amie Wittenberg, the hospi-
tal's director of emergency services.
But in recent weeks, she said more of
those showing up have COVID-like
symptoms.
The number of patients in the
Marion County Fire District No.
1 (MCFD1) is asking people not to
call 911 to seek testing for COVID or
because they have mild symptoms of
illness.
The agency, which serves about
50,000 people in Salem and Keizer,
posted a statement Monday from its
emergency medical services Chief
Mark Bjorklund. Bjorklund said about
half the fi re district's patient transports
over the past two weeks have been
COVID-related and said people should
only call 911 for life-threatening emer-
gencies including chest pain, short-
ness of breath or "any symptom or sign
you feel can lead to loss of life or limb."
He said because of the high vol-
ume of patients at Salem Hospital and
other local hospitals, the agency would
hospital at times means the emergency
room has to treat people in the hallway
while waiting for beds to open or peo-
ple to be admitted to other units which
are full.
"Unfortunately, we're just kind of
running out of rooms as places fi ll up,
beds upstairs," said Dr. Peter Hakim,
a Salem Hospital emergency room
doctor, on Friday. He said that was the
result of many factors, including nurs-
ing home staffi ng shortages prevent-
ing patients from being discharged, as
well as the COVID surge.
But Hakim said the hospital has
space for people who need care and
people shouldn't hesitate to come in if
they're having a medical emergency.
"We try as often as we can to have
people in rooms but we also don't want
to delay care. So we'll see people in the
hallway as need be," he said.
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