HMC shuts its emergency rooms; City to treat or redirect patients
The Hawaii Medical Center East sign at the front entrance to the Liliha facility points residents to the emergency room.
Hawaii Medical Center closed its emergency room facilities at both hospitals in Liliha and Ewa this morning.
It began the process of closing on Friday, notifying the city’s Emergency Medical Services Division to divert all ambulances to other area hospitals.
The hospitals did, however, accept walk-in patients through Sunday, treating and discharging or transferring them to other hospitals.
For the next couple of days, city paramedics and ambulances will be at HMC’s emergency departments to treat or redirect patients, HMC said.
Late this afternoon, Pali Momi, Kaiser, Straub and Queen’s hospitals were on reroute status because their emergency rooms are maximized, the city said.
The EMS division is now directing its ambulances to Kuakini, Tripler, Wahiawa, and Castle on the Windward side.
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“However, if EMS responds to a priority one call, a critical situation, we will go to the nearest hospital even if it’s on reroute status,” said Louise Kim McCoy, a spokeswoman for Mayor Peter Carlisle.
Dr. James Ireland, director of the Emergency Services Department, says the two HMC hospitals combined saw more than 100 patients per day in their emergency rooms, including 25 ambulances.
Carlisle and Ireland have been monitoring the situation since Friday, when HMC notified the city that it would no longer accept ambulances, Kim McCoy said.
The city stepped up its EMS services in response to the closures, and will continue to focus on pre-hospital care, she said.
HMC also isn’t admitting patients and is transferring patients to other hospitals.
