Ebola's impact: Texas Health Presbyterian ambulance diversions filling other hospitals’ ERs

At least one major hospital system in Dallas is seeing a surge in emergency room traffic based at least partly on Texas Health Presbyterian's diversion of ambulances because of Ebola concerns.

Meanwhile, the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council has come to the defense of embattled Texas Health Presbyterian, issuing a statement in support of the institution in its recent efforts in treating Ebola victim Thomas Duncan.

All emergency cases are being diverted from Presbyterian's emergency room "because of limitations in staffed capacity," related to the handling of Ebola cases. Duncan died of the disease at the hospital and, since then, two nurses who were part of his treatment team have contracted Ebola and were at least temporarily cared for at the hospital.

Methodist Health System is seeing more patients through the emergency rooms at its hospitals, a spokesman for the system said. Systemwide, emergency department admissions were up 13.8 percent over projections for October through Wednesday, jumping from a projected 8,599 at this point in October to an actual 9,788 patients.

"The additional patient volume has not been overwhelming, and the current staffing levels are allowing us to manage and adjust to provide quality patient care," Methodist Health System spokesman Joe Brown said.

The system's main hospital, Methodist Dallas Medical Center southwest of downtown Dallas, has seen an 8.5 percent increase. Methodist Charlton Medical Center in South Dallas is up 19.6 percent. Methodist's hospital in Richardson is up 8.1 percent and its hospital in Mansfield is up 15.9 percent.

Parkland Hospital in Dallas has not seen any increase in patients in its emergency department. Other hospital systems said it's too soon or too difficult to quantify what increase, if any, hospitals are seeing because of Texas Health Presbyterian's diversion.

Bill covers health care, law, education and general assignments. Subscribe to our email newsletters.