Hospitals Adopt a No Divert Policy

A new agreement between hospitals means no ambulances can be turned away if an emergency room is full.

In the past emergency rooms that were at full capacity would tell ambulances to take a patient to another hospital. But hospitals in Milwaukee County  got together and made an agreement to no longer divert first responders.

Hospitals have had since last year to add beds, look at staffing, and processes to get their ER's ready for the change. We spoke to Rick Kellar at Aurora West Allis, who says the change over is going smooth.

Rick Kellar, Aurora West Allis Medical Center's President says, "We've looked at our processes across all our institutions in aurora and we've had five months of no diversion experience now, it's actually gone quite well."

Other states have adopted similar policies with successful outcomes according to area administrators.