Hilo Medical Center has been operating above capacity for the past few months.

Yesterday’s counts included 13 holds in the Emergency Department, 13 patients in overflow areas and 37 waitlisted patients. The hospital will be providing updates 2-3 times per week to keep staff and community informed.

The hospital provided a list of factors and solutions to better tackle the overcrowding.  The factors include:

• A continuous flow of sicker patients seeking care for a variety of issues, including COVID
• Long term care facilities on island have limited capacity to accept hospital patients due to staffing shortage and COVID outbreaks
• Difficulty in discharging patients results in a high amount of waitlisted patients waiting in a hospital bed
• Fewer open beds means patients are held in the Emergency Department waiting for a bed to open, causing an increase in wait times in the ED

Hilo Medical Center has also implemented a number of solutions to continue to care for the community which include:

• Additional beds opened in the Extended Care Facility
• Utilizing overflow beds in other patient care areas such as OB Unit, Short Stay and Recovery
• Staff are working overtime and travelers have been brought in to staff additional beds
• Doubled enrollment for Nurse Residency Program to train 45 new nurses
• Launched a paid Nurse Aide Training Program
• Encouraging staff to enroll in Critical Care Nurse Training Program to help care for sicker patients

 

Photo credit: Hilo Medical Center