re: Alabama Board Coronavirus Thread

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So I just watched Reed's press conference. What he actually said is they are diverting acute care patients to Birmingham. That's quite different than Covid patients, so this is all a failure of the media leaving out a key word from his comments.

Now, whether that is true or not, I have no idea.

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That's true because it's always true. There's no reason to say it in a covid press conference because that's been the case for every day that ends in Y for decades.

In the medical/EMS world "diversion" means pretty much what you think - don't bring them here. When you're going to a hospital by ambulance, the crew contacts the facility (or state TCC control if it is a serious trauma, stroke, or STEMI). Sometimes you get told we can't handle it, take them to xxx. That's getting diverted. If they know ahead of time they're going to be limited (like the facility only has one CT scanner and it is broken) they'll call the EMS providers and let you know they're on a standing diversion for certain types of calls.

Side note - In Alabama if the patient absolutely insists on going to a particular hospital that facility has to see them anyhow but you're going to catch hell from the staff if you couldn't convince the patient to go to the recommended place.