'We can no longer pretend:' Patients suffer at understaffed UCSF ER, providers say

"As nurses and doctors worked to resuscitate a man passed out on the linoleum floor of the UCSF Parnassus Medical Center waiting room, the words of a patient waiting to be seen pierced through: "We're all going to die here.""

"A nurse evaluated him when he first arrived at the emergency room, according to multiple eyewitness accounts shared with Mission Local. He then waited for hours to be seen. When he finally stood up to tell the receptionist he was feeling worse, he fainted again. The doctors did not have a bed or room for him, so they treated him right there on the ground."

"About two months ago, an elderly woman arrived at the same ER with a pulmonary embolism - a life-threatening blood clot in her lung - according to two providers. There were no rooms. She lay in a bed in the ER hallway for three days. "She had no nurse assigned at first," said one of her providers, who like others in this piece requested anonymity to discuss hospital matters. "She had urinary incontinence and had no privacy to be cleaned up in the middle of the hallway.""

"Nine UCSF Parnassus emergency room providers told Mission Local that patients are suffering - and in some cases, dying - because the UCSF Parnassus ER does not have enough nurses or beds to monitor and treat everyone in a timely manner. Over the last three years, staffing has been cut - but UCSF has begun running a surplus. The conditions, according to providers, have resulted in multiple preventable patient deaths. "Because we don't have enough staff, we don't have the ability to monitor all our patients. We have found people literally dead in gurneys," one provider said."

A man fainted in the UCSF Parnassus Medical Center waiting room and required resuscitation on the floor after hours of waiting and no available bed or room. An elderly woman with a pulmonary embolism was kept in an ER hallway bed for three days because no rooms were available, with no nurse assigned initially and no privacy for care. Multiple providers reported that patients suffer and sometimes die because the emergency department lacks enough nurses and beds to monitor and treat people promptly. Providers described staffing cuts over the last three years and said the resulting conditions have caused multiple preventable deaths, including patients found dead in gurneys.

Read at Mission Local