Patient Care At Sasquatch

Last year, Quincy Valley Medical Center in Washington asked Live Nation for some financial help for the increase of patients during concerts and festivals at the Gorge Amphitheatre.

Quincy Valley suggested that Live Nation tack on a fee to its tickets to help cover the surge of visitors to its emergency room. Hospital administrator Medhi Merred said the hospital normally handles 10-15 patients per day but the number could jump to as high as 40 during a concert or festival, be it for brawls, drugs, injuries or whatever.

The hospital claimed at least 20 percent of its bad debt, or more than $400,000 a year, came from Gorge patrons who don’t pay up in some form for treatment.

Live Nation added onsite medical personnel last year and brought in CrowdRx for this year’s Sasquatch! Music Festival May 20-22. CrowdRx is run by Dr. Andrew Bazos who treats people onsite for dehydration and other ailments but will also send them to the hospital if needed.

At Sasquatch, he wound up treating people who were hit by a car in a campground. The staff at the small hospital may still have its concerns about drugs and injuries, but executives told Pollstar the change is a step in the right direction.

“I thought it was really great to have a physician onsite rather than just the paramedics and MPs,” Alicia Shields, chief nursing officer, said. “We had really good communication. From our perspective it was good to have someone there who could give us a call and give us a good picture of what was coming in our doors.” 

I think last year they started doing some stuff onsite but the previous year there was no physician and they were bringing a lot more patients in, so I think last year and this year have made a big impact.”

Merred, as an administrator rather than a patient care professional, could not measure a difference between last year and this year.

“There wasn’t a big swing in numbers because the medics were doing it last year,” Merred said. “Understand, they may have treated more patients (this year) with minor things but from our side it is similar. It may also be there were more attendees this year; maybe they had doubled (attendance) this year and doubled the injuries as well.”

Live Nation had no comment.