PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Two Delaware County hospitals forced to divert emergency room patients on Tuesday say it was due to a failure of their radiology system. Though the system is up and running again, some officials say the outage speaks to a bigger issue.
Crozer Health’s Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park and Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Chester had to divert emergency room patients after the radiology failure left hospital staff unable to treat or diagnose certain individuals.
That stopped ambulances from bringing in patients who needed care that might have required imaging or radiology, said nurse Maureen May. “As health care providers, we depend on imaging to diagnose, treat and also to save lives.”
May, who is also president of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses, a union, says the issue affected patients with a range of maladies, from broken bones to strokes.
“[With] something like that, radiology is imperative. You cannot go to a hospital that does not have the imaging available to diagnose and treat. And there are timelines.”
May’s union represents nurses at both hospitals. She says Tuesday’s system failure was made worse by Crozer’s owner, Prospect Medical Holdings, which is currently in the process of selling Crozer Health. Since purchasing Crozer, Prospect has shut down some of its other facilities, including Delaware County Memorial Hospital and Springfield Hospital. It also closed Taylor’s operating room in August.
“It’s part of a bigger picture. Can things go wrong? Yes, infrastructures can fail. But there’s a lot of failures over there — and it starts with the closures — and again, slowly but surely, creating a desert for care,” she said.
Representatives from Crozer Health acknowledged the system did go down, but they did not give a reason, nor did they elaborate on how long it was down or where patients were sent.