Dominican Hospital emergency department ready for New Year’s [Santa Cruz Sentinel, Calif.]

Dec. 30--SANTA CRUZ -- Emergency doctors are gearing up for what may be a very busy New Year's Day.

Dominican Hospital, which serves the northern part of the county, plans to fully staff the emergency department with additional clinical help on call.

The hospital's nurse management team reports that the number of patients over New Year's is similar to other days, except for a spike in volume that can happen from midnight to 4 a.m. on New Year's Day.

Many of the patients who arrive at this time have been celebrating with alcohol and may require longer stays in the emergency department to sober up and leave safely.

The wait time can be affected by the number of very sick patients who must be processed for hospital admission.

Statistics show more alcohol-related traffic fatalities on New Year's Day, 80 deaths compared to an averge of 32 on the same day of other weeks in December and January, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which studied 2000 through 2009 data.

New Year's Day is also the deadliest day for pedestrians, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Poeple who show up at Dominican on New Year's Eve may see some new faces.

That's because CEP America, a national group, has the contract to provide emergency doctors, taking over from Santa Cruz Emergency Physicians.

All of the doctors in Santa Cruz Emergency Physicians have become partners in CEP America, which is based in

Emeryville, so they will continue to work at Dominican, but new doctors from CEP will work alongside them.

"We expect that the public will experience enhanced clinical quality and service excellence," said Dominican spokesman Mike Lee, adding, "No changes are currently anticipated in employee staffing for the ED Emergency Department."

Dominican statistics show 258 patients came to the emergency department New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in 2009-10, when the holiday fell on Thursday and Friday.

The tally was smaller, 210, last year when the holiday fell on Friday and Saturday and 215 in 2008-09 when the holiday was on Wednesday and Thursday.

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(c)2011 the Santa Cruz Sentinel (Scotts Valley, Calif.)

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