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Rush Of Patients Tests Patience At Sacramento Emergency Rooms

By Kelly Ryan

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — For many patients heading to a hospital in the Sacramento region on Tuesday, a trip to the emergency room was an even longer wait.

At one point Sacramento city fire officials say ambulances with patients were lined up at UC Davis Medical Center with a wait from one to four hours.

According to the Sacramento County Emergency Medical Services Division, the overwhelming number of patients at UC Davis medical center forced to hospital to go on diversion, where it stops accepting ambulances.

That put pressure on other hospitals and a Level 2 expanded emergency was activated by EMS.

That led to other area hospitals feeling the impact—11 in total including Sutter Medical Center, Methodist Mercy General Kaiser South and Sacramento. A spokesperson for Sutter Medical Center said they saw and felt the impact, with a longer wait for patients.

And officials can't say for certain why there was a sudden influx of patients.

UC Davis Medical Center declined an on camera interview but released a statement, saying

"UC Davis Medical Center is experiencing an extremely high patient volume, as a result eight elective surgeries that have been scheduled today have been canceled and rescheduled. In addition, the hospital is taking patients transferred from other hospitals only on a very limited case-by-case basis."

The alert was cancelled at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and EMS officials say things are getting back to normal as hospitals realign patients.

Officials say a Level 2 emergency hasn't been called in more than five years, and add that patient care was not compromised on Tuesday.

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