ASSEMBLYMEMBER TED LIEU
53RD ASSEMBLY DISTRICT
For Immediate Release: May 6, 2008
Contact: Ashlie Simpson
Phone: (916) 319-2053

Forget About Coping with a Terrorist Attack Or Natural Disaster, Our Emergency Rooms Can't Even Handle Day To Day Operations

Assemblymember Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) released the following statement regarding a report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which revealed that Los Angeles Level I Trauma Emergency Rooms could not handle a terrorist attack or natural disaster:

“I commend Congressman Henry Waxman’s House Oversight Committee for focusing on the important issue of emergency room capacity.  Congressman Waxman found that Los Angeles hospitals could not handle a terrorist attack or natural disaster.  However, it is clear that emergency rooms in Los Angeles cannot even handle day-to-day capacities, let alone be able to handle an influx of patients in a disaster scenario.

On the day the survey was conducted, three of Los Angeles' five Level I Trauma Centers were diverting ambulances to other hospitals and there were 20 patients being boarded at emergency rooms taking up critical bed space.  We don't need a terrorist attack or natural disaster to show us that we are already placing patients' lives at risk by failing to address emergency room overcrowding.

For this reason, I introduced AB 2207, which would increase existing hospital capacity and require emergency rooms to evaluate and plan for overcrowding by transferring patients to hospital beds rather than sitting in waiting rooms or ambulances.  This bill, which is sponsored by the California Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, would force hospitals and emergency rooms to work together to save patients’ lives, and it needs to be passed now.”