ER visits rise at Stephens County Hospital

By Ross Willis
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 10:19 AM EST

The Toccoa Record

Stephens County Hospital is experiencing a continued rapid growth in emergency room visits and patients admitted to the facility, according to hospital administrator Ed Gambrell.

Gambrell presented a host of statistics to hospital authority members during a presentation at a regular authority meeting on Monday, Nov. 19.

As part of his presentation, Gambrell showed authority members the figures for each of the past four fiscal years.

The hospital’s fiscal year ends on Sept. 30 of each year.

“We are seeing steady growth,” Gambrell said, indicating a chart of the number of adults admitted for at least one night to the hospital.

According to that chart, there were 5,168 adult admissions in Fiscal Year 2004; 5,481 in FY05; 5,631 in FY06; and 5,754 in FY07.

“Our total number of census days has been steadily rising, also,” the administrator said, referring to the total number of days all admitted patients spent in the hospital.

Going hand-in-hand with the admissions statistics was the number of emergency room visits over the same time period: 19,460 in FY04; 21,082 in FY05; 22,452 in FY06; and 23,673 in FY07.

“The reason the number of visits is so important is that around 65 percent of our admissions to the hospital come from the emergency room department,” Gambrell said, showing a chart that illustrated the continued growth in the number of patients admitted after visiting the emergency room. There were 2,669 patients admitted from the emergency room in FY04; 2,842 in FY05; 2,838 in FY06; and 3,394 in FY07.

“While we served 23,673 patients in the emergency room this past year [FY07], the expansion and renovation of the emergency room increased our capacity to around 30,000 patients a year, so we will be able to continue handling that growth for a while yet,” Gambrell said.

Among the other statistics cited by Gambrell were a “boom” in the number of births at the hospital (667 in FY07, compared to 501 just four years before), constant increase in the total number of surgeries (3,613 in FY04, compared to 4,217 in FY07), MRI uses (1,328 in FY04, and 1,786 in FY07), CT scans (4,962 in FY04, and 7,850 in FY07), nuclear medicine cases (2,719 in FY04, and 3,712 in FY07) and mammograms (5,512 in FY04, and 6,464 in FY07).

“Our surgery cases are approximately 70 percent outpatient, and we do roughly 150 MRIs each month,” Gambrell said as part of his comments about each individual statistic. “We also do a lot of CT scans; we have a very good machine, and our ER physicians are very dependent on CT scans to make their diagnoses.”

“Our nuclear medicine cases, we had 3,712 this past fiscal year. That’s the highest number we have ever had. And, we had 6,464 mammograms this past fiscal year. The growth in the number of mammograms means that we are doing more than 500 mammograms each month. They stay really busy,” he said.

The administrator also said the number of patient transfers to other medical facilities from the Stephens County Hospital emergency room hasn’t really increased since 2004. In fact, that number is almost equal to what it was four years ago.

“Most of the transfers we do have from the ER are cardiac patients, and they go to Gainesville. They have a fine cardiac facility that has a very good success rate. Our head injuries and burn injuries are generally shipped as well,” Gambrell said.

In FY04, a total of 423 patients were transferred to other medical facilities from the Stephens County ER; in FY05, that number grew to the four-year high of 483 patients; in FY06, the lowest number of patients in the four-year span, 422, were transferred; and in FY07, some 435 patients were transferred.

“The big increases were in emergency room visits and on the in-patient side. We have seen a tremendous increase in volume, and that’s a good thing. I don’t feel bad about it. We’re filling a big need that is out there,” Gambrell said.