COVID-19 surge pushing Minnesota's ambulance transfers 'through the roof'

Allina Health paramedics Kelsey Cook and Dan Lennartson pushed a patient on a gurney out to their ambulance Wednesday afternoon while responding to a call in Coon Rapids.

[Star Tribune, December 03, 2020] Paramedics thought the pandemic would mean emergency crews racing to help patients in respiratory distress.

EMS traffic was slow in the spring. But in the fall, the second COVID surge that’s boosted emergency runs has really pumped up trips between hospitals to create space for those critically ill with COVID-19.

“You would sit around for a long time without calls coming in, because everyone was staying in — everyone was kind of scared of doing stuff,” Allina Health EMS paramedic Devin Orchard said Wednesday after bringing a patient to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids.

“When this next wave hit, I feel like it’s almost been kind of disbelief. This time our call volumes are way up. ... The volume of inter-facility transfers has just gone through the roof.”

Read the full story online at www.startribune.com.

Posted on December 03, 2020 in