News

Longer trips for ambulances

By Scott Wagar

09/25/2012

With communities in the western part of the state increasing in size, it is having a adverse affect on urban medical facilities in finding room to place patients which are coming in from the rural communities.

In recent weeks, individuals who have been taken to St. Andrew’s Health Center’s emergency room, and then having to be transferred to another medical facility, are finding out that at times Trinity Hospital in Minot isn’t always the medical facility they might be transported to.

The reason behind this is Trinity Hospital at the present moment doesn’t always have open beds in its facility for patients due to the increase in population around the Minot area. With the increase in population, means an increase in patients, which means less room for patients.

At the moment in Bottineau, if patients are transferred from St. Andrew’s they are currently being sent to Trinity, but if the Minot facility cannot accept patients due to overcrowding, they are sent to Bismarck’s St. Alexius or Sanford Hospital or Grand Forks’ Altru.

There has been some concern from local people in Bottineau to which hospital they might be sent to if they become ill. However, according to Jodi Atkinson, CEO and director of St. Andrew’s Health Center, most individuals can expect to be sent to Minot’s Trinity Hospital.

“Trinity is always our primary call. There are no standard protocols at this time,” Atkinson said. “It’s a case by case, day by day, bed by bed for both our Minot and Bismarck locations. I would also say there may be a day where two or three transfers are going to Grand Forks or Bismarck. But, I would say the majority are going to Minot.

“I do know that from the impact they are feeling in the west, the Willistons, Watford Cities, and Tiogas, the demands are greater on the system,” Atkinson added. “So, it has really become a capacity issue, and it’s primarily on any given day. We might go for a week and everything is good, then there might be two or three days where everything is tight, and Minot is just not able to take them, so we go on to the next. But, we do not have any standard protocol where we are automatically going out to Altru first, Trinity is always our first call,”  

At times, too, the Bottineau Ambulance Service will transfer patients to a hospital at the patients’ wishes.

“Requests are made to go to another hospital,” Atkinson said. “Recently there was one individual who asked to be transported to Fargo at the patient and family’s request.”

With Trinity Hospital seeing a larger number of patients and fewer beds to offer local residents, area folks are hoping that perhaps Trinity will re-open St. Joseph Hospital or that St. Alexius will construct a hospital in Minot.

Although Trinity Hospital did not return an answer about St. Joseph’s Hospital to the Bottineau Courant, St. Alexius did return a questioner to the newspaper stating that its medical center is placing some earnest consideration into building a facility in Minot.  

“St Alexius has operated a clinic in Minot for a number of years.  St Alexius has expanded its clinic on the north hill (Sykes property) and owns other property on the north hill in Minot that could be utilized for further expansion including a hospital.  St Alexius continues to evaluate its options in that regard.  With the status of healthcare reform still very uncertain, it is a difficult time to make long term expansion commitments,” said Gary P. Miller, president and CEO of St. Alexius Medical Center.  “But, with the oil development seeming to be a certainty for many years to come and with a demand for medical services growing, St Alexius is seriously evaluating its next step in the Minot community.”

For now, those individuals who need a medical transport from Bottineau, what medical facility they will end up in is uncertain. However, Trinity Hospital will always be the primary hospital St. Andrew’s will seek to send its patients.