On June 30 a local woman reported receiving a call from the Eureka Springs Hospital cancelling her appointment because of an outbreak of Covid-19 at the hospital. The woman was told that two staff and two patients were affected.
When Ilene Powell’s mother, Jacqueline Powell, 89, had a fall at the Prestige Care retirement facility in Holiday Island on June 28, Powell was shocked that the responders from the Eureka Springs Fire Department Emergency Medical Services (EMS) who came to pick up her mother were not wearing masks. Powell was even more upset when they refused to transport her mother to their preferred hospital, Mercy Berryville.
“One of the ambulance guys said it was against the law to go to Mercy Berryville,” Powell said, questioning whether her fully vaccinated mother caught Covid-19 either from the emergency medical technicians (EMTs) or the hospital employees.
“I talked to Fire Chief Nick Samac who attempted to compare my request for Mercy Berryville to requests they get to go to Tulsa and Springfield. Hospitals in those towns are an hour away. It only takes ten minutes to get to Mercy Berryville. Plus, rescue workers should not pose a threat to those they say they are helping. I wonder if the EMTs are vaxxed, if they are tested on a regular basis considering their interactions with the public, and if they wear masks now.”
Powell said her mother had been to Mercy Berryville a month earlier, her records were at that hospital and her doctor practices there. Powell said by being forced to go to ESH, those records weren’t available, which complicated getting care.
“Mercy Berryville has all her past scans for comparison. Any new scans would have been taken on imaging equipment previously used and would therefore be consistent testing,” Powell said. “She had never been to ESH, thus we had to recreate the wheel. She was just in the Mercy Berryville ER a month ago, so it isn’t against the law to go there.”
Samac said all their employees work off protocols and wear masks on calls whenever they enter scenes and encounter patients.
“I was not on that particular call and I spoke with the daughter of the patient who expressed her concerns to me,” Samac said. “I assured her that when I got back from Texas, I would interview the guys and visit with them. Patients do get to dictate where they go most of the time. In that particular incident, I had a part-time employee who was a flight paramedic, a very competent medic, who made a decision that by taking her to ESH, the patient could be returned to Prestige in an expedient manner and get back into her living environment. Both paramedics were tested right after the incident and were negative. They did wear masks at the hospital.
“I would presume the Eureka Springs Hospital did a test and the patient tested positive shortly after arriving at the hospital. Our procedures are when we are notified a medic has possible exposure, they are sent for a rapid test and tested again prior to the next shift. They tested negative both times. It is not something that just pops up. I can’t speculate about the timeline when this patient may have contracted Covid, but I expressed my sympathies to the patient’s daughter and advised she would be taken wherever the daughter would like her to go.”
Samac said sometimes there is confusion on the scene and apparently there was some miscommunication between the two crew members in the ambulance. He said he talked to Ilene Powell and assured her this would not happen again.
“My guys don’t have a spiteful bone in their body,” Samac said. “There is no reason to take someone somewhere they don’t want to go. His reason was innocent. We have extremely competent EMS professionals. We’ve been providing the same quality care to the Western District since the inception of the EMS. The last thing we want is to have upset families or upset patients. Covid has been challenging for everybody. It is something we deal with all the time. Our guys take vaccinations seriously and they take mask wearing seriously. It is something we took seriously early in the pandemic and we intend to continue the process. We do fever checks before every shift.”
Powell said her mother tested negative for Covid a week before her accident. Her mother’s injuries included a fractured clavicle and scapula. Powell said since her mother has been in the hospital in a special Covid-19 room, she has had two roommates with Covid-19 who were discharged. Powell has not been allowed to see her mother except through a window.
“She was not in good shape from what I saw through the window,” Powell said on July 3. “She has no Covid symptoms but is still in pain and is confused.”
Powell said Samac told her the outcome would have been the same no matter which hospital they brought her to. But Powell feels their rights were violated by not being able to go to the hospital of their choice. She is also being charged for the ambulance ride.
“Samac said he was going to charge me for the ride despite my requests to go to Mercy Berryville,” Powell said. “He said only the city could consider some relief on the bill.”
Powell has been trying to get her mother transferred but said both Brighton Ridge and Autumn Hill told her they had no beds if she was released and needed rehab. Powell is working on getting her mother back to Prestige with physical therapy and home health orders when she is released and considered Covid free.