Emergency Medical Care Los Angeles

The psychiatric emergency room at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center is so crowded that it violates patients' rights and puts them and staff members at serious risk for injury, according to doctors, nurses and a county grand jury report to be released this week.

Los Angeles County supervisors scrambled Tuesday to fix an array of problems in their health system, moving to ease overcrowding in the County-USC psychiatric emergency room and train more nurses to provide specialized medical care. The actions came in response to Times articles describing dangerous delays in critical care at County-USC Medical Center, including the deaths of three patient after prolonged waits for dialysis.

Pregnant with twins and bedridden, Vladimira Doran needed help fast. Her husband was at a park with their 3-year-old son and she was in the midst of a miscarriage. The Mar Vista woman immediately called her doctor, who had been closely tracking her troubled, 16-week pregnancy. Doran was instructed to get to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. But in an action that has prompted investigations by Los Angeles city and county officials, a senior paramedic refused to take her to the Westside hospital.

The psychiatric emergency room at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center is so crowded that it violates patients' rights and puts them and staff members at serious risk for injury, according to doctors, nurses and a county grand jury report to be released this week.

The closure of a North Hollywood hospital and possible shutdown of a second medical center nearby will lengthen ambulance rides by at least three to five minutes for some patients and increase pressure on emergency rooms at other hospitals in the Valley, county emergency officials said Friday. The prediction comes a day after North Hollywood Medical Center announced it would shut its doors in August, closing an emergency room that currently handles about 450 ambulance patients every month.

A pair of combat helicopters from the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station flew to the rescue Monday when five infants from Northridge Hospital Medical Center had to be evacuated to Orange County because of earthquake damage to a neonatal ward. Emergency teams from UCI Medical Center in Orange and Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills accompanied the Marines during the hastily arranged midafternoon flights.

The Los Angeles Fire Department unveiled an ambitious five-year plan Tuesday to correct severe staffing and equipment shortages in paramedic services, a proposal sharply questioned by Mayor Richard Riordan's office. The main thrust of the proposal calls for the department to train 500 paramedics during the next five years and staff 40 additional rescue ambulances. The goal, said Chief William R.

More than a dozen paramedics, nurses and firefighters testified Wednesday against a reorganization plan, telling a Los Angeles County commission that the change would jeopardize patient care. But Los Angeles Fire Chief William Bamattre, the architect of the proposal, told members of the Emergency Medical Services Commission that the plan would trim at least two minutes off the average response time in the San Fernando Valley.

Fumes from a chemical apparently ingested by a child made some emergency room workers lightheaded at County-USC Medical Center on Wednesday night and prompted a response from a hazardous materials team. "Initial reports are that it appears that the child has ingested some type of chemical, and the chemical was brought into the emergency room with the child," said Jim Wells, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman.

To free paramedic units for more urgent needs, Los Angeles Fire Chief Donald O. Manning proposed a plan Tuesday to hire private firms--and perhaps use trained volunteers--to handle non-emergency calls. Battalion Chief Roger Gillis, the department's community liaison officer, said the department estimated it could save $6 million in the first year and about $2.8 million in succeeding years. "Any time we take away or remove a service, we're not happy about it," Gillis said.

Pregnant with twins and bedridden, Vladimira Doran needed help fast. Her husband was at a park with their 3-year-old son and she was in the midst of a miscarriage. The Mar Vista woman immediately called her doctor, who had been closely tracking her troubled, 16-week pregnancy. Doran was instructed to get to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. But in an action that has prompted investigations by Los Angeles city and county officials, a senior paramedic refused to take her to the Westside hospital.

John Smith has been on the job 35 straight hours. Thirty-five hours of tired eyes, tense moments and frustration. Thirty-five hours dealing with sick and wounded and out-of-sorts citizens from the Hollywood Hills to Boyle Heights to skid row. A Los Angeles Fire Department paramedic, Smith is used to slogging through shifts like this. You clock in and you suck it up, often working days of forced overtime because there aren't enough paramedics to go around. Sometimes you save a life.

The Los Angeles Fire Department unveiled an ambitious five-year plan Tuesday to correct severe staffing and equipment shortages in paramedic services, a proposal sharply questioned by Mayor Richard Riordan's office. The main thrust of the proposal calls for the department to train 500 paramedics during the next five years and staff 40 additional rescue ambulances. The goal, said Chief William R.

Three Los Angeles Fire Department dispatchers seriously bungled calls for help from a man who said his fiancee had passed out and was bleeding, interviews and records show. The incident, in which the woman died, occurred last month after officials vowed to curb such mistakes. Although paramedics were stationed down the street, it took two phone calls and nearly 20 minutes before they arrived at the Tujunga home of Robert Shaw and Elaina Marie Vescio.

A citizens group has expanded its campaign against a controversial plan to reorganize paramedics services, raising money for a mailer that suggests the San Fernando Valley would suffer. The plan, drawn up by the Los Angeles Fire Department and endorsed by county health officials, would staff ambulances with one paramedic and one emergency medical technician. The proposal would split up paramedic teams that now operate in pairs.

A controversial pilot program that would staff ambulances with one paramedic and one emergency medical technician instead of two paramedics has been delayed until late September because of the Democratic National Convention, fire officials said Friday. The convention will draw thousands of politicians, delegates, protesters and news media staffers to Staples Center, dozens of hotels and 200 related events around Southern California.

The niece of a man who allegedly was denied emergency treatment at Panorama Community Hospital testified Thursday that it was she--not the hospital's emergency physician--who decided to take the man to a county hospital because he was not insured. The testimony of Laura Sulit of Arleta supported defense attorneys' contentions that Dr. Stephen C. Acosta did not refuse to treat 67-year-old Felix Talag when he came to the hospital's emergency room on April 11, 1987.

Seeking to cut costs and improve emergency response time, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a pilot program in which private ambulances will supplement city paramedic services in the San Fernando Valley. During the eight-month program, about 4,000 patients in the Valley whose lives are not in danger will be transported to hospitals by private ambulances, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said.

A controversial pilot program that would staff ambulances with one paramedic and one emergency medical technician has been delayed until late September because of the Democratic National Convention, fire officials said Friday. The convention in August will draw thousands of politicians, delegates, media and protesters to the Staples Center, dozens of hotels and 200 related events around the Southland.

More than a dozen paramedics, nurses and firefighters testified Wednesday against a reorganization plan, telling a Los Angeles County commission that the change would jeopardize patient care. But Los Angeles Fire Chief William Bamattre, the architect of the proposal, told members of the Emergency Medical Services Commission that the plan would trim at least two minutes off the average response time in the San Fernando Valley.