It’s only been a month since Catholic Health set up a temporary emergency room in Lockport, and the South Transit Road site has already seen more than 1,150 patients.
The location is averaging 42 patients a day so far in July, and about 10 ambulances daily are pulling through its makeshift EMS entrance.
Dr. Jennifer Rogers, medical director of the site at 5875 S. Transit Road, said that while 85% to 90% of those patients have been able to be treated and released home, there also have been some trauma cases and instances of severe respiratory distress come through the site.
“I can confidently say that there are patients who have been brought in, either by private vehicle and some by ambulance, who if they had to travel another 20 minutes for emergency care, they would have had very different outcomes,” she said. “So this has been really important and lifesaving for people in this community.”
Catholic Health officials scrambled to get the temporary emergency room opened on June 18, preserving local emergency health services after the bankrupt Eastern Niagara Hospital closed June 17 following a 115-year run. Such a solution had been sought by state Health Department officials, who wanted to close any potential gap in care after Eastern Niagara’s closure.
When Eastern Niagara Hospital in mid-March announced that it would close June 17, earlier th…
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