The University of Alabama Board of Trustees applied for an Emergency Certificate of Need from the state to temporarily expand UABs Emergency Department (ED) and resolve its extreme overcrowding earlier this month.

A Certificate of Need, or CON, is required before any health facility in Alabama can partake in major capital expenditures or expansions according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

UAB CEO Brenda Carlisle said overcrowding in the ED had reached a crisis point in the request.

UAB requested permission from the state to temporarily lease two mobile emergency facility units and renovate parts of the hospitals waiting room to add 25 additional patient care areas as an interim solution in the letter.

These additions will cost just over $10 million which UAB plans to source from their cash on hand the letter says.

UAB is also working on a more permanent expansion plan that would add 60 additional treatment spaces at the cost of $73 million.

This plan is still awaiting full approval from the UA Board of Trustees according to UAB spokesperson Alicia Rohan.

For the more permanent expansion Gov. Kay Ivey recently proposed dedicating $50 million of the states Education Trust Fund to UAB as the Lede previously reported.

This proposal came after UAB President Dr. Ray Watts stressed the severity of their EDs overcrowding in a special meeting called by the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees in early April specifically to address the issue.

Over the last five years UAB has experienced a 20 percent increase in patients and at least 25 percent of those patients require hospital admission according to the request letter.

It adds that UAB is overburdened in part because they are the only American College of Surgeons verified Level I trauma center in the state.

This issue is only compounded by a 40% spike in UAB trauma numbers alone over the last decade which can largely be attributed to Birmingham gunshot victim numbers doubling over that time period according to a report from AL.coms Amy Yurkanin.

This combination of overcrowding and the severity of cases that come to UABs ED often leads to vulnerable patient populations receiving delayed care according to statements made in the request by Dr. Marie-Carmelle Elie, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at UAB.

She added that the overcrowding had also placed UAB in the top 25% of hospitals nationwide where patients leave without being seen or even leave in the middle of medical care, only to return later with worse symptoms.

The hospitals resources simply cannot meet current ED demand, said Elie.

Link:

UAB: Emergency department crowding has reached a crisis point - AL.com