Hospital, Group Discuss Delays for Emergency Care

Dozens of northeast San Fernando Valley residents urged on by an activist group met with the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center administrator Thursday to express concerns over treatment delays in the hospital’s emergency room, which some said routinely extend up to 12 hours.

“What we hope to accomplish is to better the system--the delivery of health service,” said Salvador Ponce, one of the leaders of Valley Organized in Community Efforts--or VOICE.

VOICE coordinated the encounter at the Santa Rosa de Lima Church hall between the organization and Melinda Anderson, the hospital’s administrator.

VOICE is a nonprofit organization that has served mostly Latino residents in the northeast Valley since 1988, offering services such as citizenship classes and voter registration drives, according to its leaders. The organization claims about 14,000 members, mostly from 14 Catholic, Protestant and Jewish congregations.

In March the organization received a $139,000 grant from the California Endowment to do work in health care, said Lenor Ramirez, a VOICE worker.

In the last few months, the organization has held workshops to answer people’s health-care questions, such as how to get insurance or obtain free services, she said.

A recurring theme among some of the approximately 350 people who went through the workshops was concern over extended waiting times at Olive View, Ramirez said.

None of the people who told stories of delays ended up having life-threatening emergencies, she said. But they did not know that until after treatment, she said. Common ailments included rashes, swollen eyes and broken bones.

Marco Nova, 53, told Anderson he went to the hospital in March with his face swollen around one eye but the swelling was gone by the time the doctor saw him.

“After 10 1/2 hours of waiting, I was already cured,” he said.

The group presented Anderson five requests:

* To define an acceptable waiting time.

* To provide a telephone number and work schedule for the triage nurses, who determine which patients need care before others.

* To guarantee that patients who called the triage nurse would get appointments for primary care the same day.

* To provide additional emergency room space so family members can wait with the patient.

* To meet with VOICE again in July to evaluate progress.

Many of the problems at Olive View pointed out Thursday were already being worked on, Anderson said, but the system has financial problems. In 1995, the budget for county hospitals was cut by $350 million, she said.

Long waiting times are not new at county facilities, she explained, noting that they range from a few minutes to 12 hours or longer, Anderson said. But hospital staff must prioritize patients--treating life-threatening cases first.

Through various techniques in the last few years, she said, the hospital has cut by half the number of patients waiting 12 hours or more.

As chief executive officer of the county’s Valley Care program, she constantly tries to reduce traffic in the emergency room by passing out pamphlets listing satellite clinics around the Valley--including in Van Nuys, Tujunga and Glendale--where nonemergency illnesses can be treated.

She said the hospital is already looking to enlarge its emergency room waiting area and working on a phone number that patients can use to speak to the triage nurses.

“All these things require funds,” she said.

She also said the hospital is willing to work with VOICE in ongoing efforts to improve services.

After the meeting, Anderson got a standing ovation when she signed an agreement promising further cooperation.

“I certainly will meet with them again,” she said. “If we don’t have the community coming to us with concerns, why are we here?”