Canandaigua hospital diverted patients when room ran out

Canandaigua, New York— Amid hospital bed shortages across the state, FF Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua temporarily diverted patients twice last week.

According to Thompson representatives, they enacted diversions on November 16 and November 18, saying it was necessary because they had a number of patients in the emergency department requiring intensive care, but no room in the ICU to move them out of the ED.

“That being said, we would never turn away an ambulance,” said Anne Johnston with UR Medicine Thompson Health. “So if an ambulance were to arrive with a patient needing emergency care, we would absolutely provide the care.”

According to Thompson representatives, they could not transfer their ICU patients to other area hospitals, because there were no available ICU beds in all of Western New York.

Thompson representatives said: “Our two diversions last week (on 11/16 and 11/18) were due to several patients in the Emergency Department who were awaiting admission to the hospital. This included several ICU-level patients, and all of our ICU beds were full. When we tried to transfer these patients, there were no available ICU beds in western New York. As has been the case for several weeks, there are many patients in the hospital awaiting nursing home placement, and there are no nursing home beds available in the region. Diversion gives us a chance to decompress for a short period, diverting EMS to other hospitals.”

According to the New York State Department of Health, “A diversion request does not mean the hospital ED is closed, but usually means the current emergency patient load exceeds the Emergency Department’s ability to treat additional patients promptly.”