(MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Paramedics gather around an ambulance after a woman was brought out on a gurney outside the Rayburn House Office Building on May 26 2006 in Washington, DC following reports of shots having been fired. D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson said he’s concerned about the amount of down time ambulances spend at area hospitals.

Courtney Mabeus, The Examiner
2007-03-05 08:00:00.0
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D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson said he’s concerned about the amount of down time ambulances spend at area hospitals because of a shortage of emergency rooms and nurse staffing.

Mendelson’s comments came after a visit Thursday to the Office of Unified Communications, which dispatches all non-emergency 311 and 911 calls as well as handling the mayor’s city-wide call center.

Mendelson said District ambulances average about 45 minutes waiting at the hospital to deliver a patient, which he said is one of the longest times in the nation.

Mendelson said he looked at a dispatcher’s screen and found one ambulance had waited an hour and 42 minutes.

“The primary reason they’re being held up is the backup in the emergency room,” Mendelson, who chairs the judiciary and public safety committee, said Friday.

The District must find solutions to reduce demand on the city’s emergency medical services and increase coordination between hospitals and EMS to help spread the load over all area hospitals, Mendelson said.

He said he is awaiting recommendations from an EMS commission established in May.

“Our emergency rooms are overused,” Mendelson said. “Some of that is an EMS problem, some of that is a public health problem.”

The planned closure of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, known as the South Capitol Street Bridge, in July and August is an added concern Mendelson said.

The District Department of Transportation has said it will notify the public of detours through that area as the closure nears.

“We’ve got to look at that because its too critical to EMS to be able to transport around town,” Mendelson said.

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com