Managing Patient Surge in Rural Areas Experiences from Gallup Indian Medical Center

In many rural areas, patient transfer is a common practice, though often strained by various factors (e.g., distance to receiving hospitals, geography, available mode of transport, and available staff to treat, transport, and receive patients). ASPR TRACIE met with Dr. Emily Bartlett, an emergency medicine physician who has worked at the Gallup Indian Medical Center in New Mexico (GIMC) since 2020 to learn more about how the center determined which patients to transport and which to treat in place as they overcame related challenges (e.g., no available beds in the region, not enough staff to accomplish patient transport). She was joined by Brandon Wyaco, Public Information Officer from the Navajo Area Indian Health Service.