Special to the Lehigh Acres Gazette
Lehigh Regional Medical Center is having some big changes that could affect you and your family medical needs.
Lehigh Regional Medical Center CEO Gary Bell admits the new policy for the intensive care unit that takes effect Monday was abrupt, but the reason he says is fairly common for a hospital of this size.
The medical center is not accepting any more new patients that need ICU care though the ER.
Bell says that’s because the only critical care physician who oversees the unit stopped taking emergency room calls.
Because of that, certain types of patients who, for example, need to be on ventilators or are in serious condition, must go to another hospital because their doctor will not be available 24/7.
According to Bell, he made “ALL” EMS carriers aware of the new policy the week before so that crews would not bring ICU patients to the hospital.
There are patients in the intensive care unit at Lehigh Regional, but Bell says their conditions don’t require 24-hour monitoring by the critical care doctor.
Any patients who did have already been moved to other hospitals in SW Florida
This new policy may not last long as the CEO says he will have two physicians with the same training as the current critical care doctor in his office this week for interviews.
This will hopefully shorten the amount of time the hospital will be denying ICU patients.
Prime Healthcare, the company that bought Lehigh Regional Medical Center in February, to see what they had to say about the ICU change.
A spokeswoman said very few hospitals actually offer round the clock critical care and Prime Healthcare supports the medical center’s decision to limit ICU patient admissions right now.
Full statement from Prime Healthcare spokeswoman:
“Lehigh Regional Medical Center will not be closing down ICU operations. “Critical Care Coverage is always provided to patients when needed, and very few hospitals in the country provide 24/7 in-house critical care coverage. This can be provided by ED physicians, hospitalists, or other physicians on staff. We value our patients and remain committed to providing the highest level of care and remain steadfast in our commitment to compassionate, patient-centered, quality healthcare”, said Paryus Patel, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Prime Healthcare. Lehigh Regional Medical Center was ranked a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures by The Joint Commission as of September 1st, 2015. This is the most recent data available and shows the positive direction the hospital is trending under Prime Healthcare’s leadership.”