Amidst a violent overnight in Buffalo during the holiday weekend, a Facebook post gained traction for claiming patients were being diverted from ECMC to Kaleida's Buffalo General. However, ECMC says this claim was inaccurate.
“Those social media posts from anonymous scanner trackers were inaccurate. While ECMC’s Emergency Department yesterday was very busy - 29 traumas received, including several gunshot wound patients - the hospital never went on diversion," an ECMC spokesperson said in a statement.
Buffalo Police confirmed 12 people were shot in six different shootings during the holiday.
Ryan Hejmanowski from Kaleida’s corporate emergency management, said it is rare that ECMC — the only level one trauma center in the area — would divert trauma patients to other hospitals.
"ECMC really handles the trauma, the gunshot wound victims, as in the case of this weekend," Hejmanowski said.
He explained that in the case of a mass-casualty incident, such as last year's bus crash, Kaleida would be notified by Erie County Emergency Services to be ready for patients.
"There probably wouldn't be an instance in which Buffalo General would be activated, in a sense, to take trauma patients," Hejmanowski said, adding the exemption would only be extreme cases where all hospitals have to take patients. He gives the example of Las Vegas' 2017 mass shooting, where over 800 people were hurt, of which 413 had gunshot wounds needing treatment.
Hejmanowski said it is also extremely difficult for hospitals to get approval from the New York Operations Center to divert patients.
"In New York State, it's extremely difficult to request and obtain diversion," Hejmanowski said.
Hejmanowski said if you are ever having an emergency, don’t make decisions based on a social media post.
“I would say not to hesitate in going to whichever is the closest, most appropriate emergency room, regardless of what you're seeing on social media posts, unless it's the official account for that hospital," Hejmanowski said.
The creator of the Facebook page, which publishes information heard over police and EMS scanners, has since posted, saying in part, “the information I post comes from monitoring police scanners and from you, the followers. Because I'm pushing it out in real time, it won't always be 100% accurate.”
