Kansas City-Area Hospitals Overwhelmed, Turn Away Ambulances

The surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations is so severe in the Kansas City area that some hospitals were forced at one point to refuse ambulances due to a lack of space. Officials at St. Luke's Health System say eight hospitals, in both Missouri and Kansas, reported such high volumes of patients Wednesday night that they temporarily stopped accepting ambulances. Two of those hospitals were part of the St. Luke’s system and the others were not identified. Dr. Marc Larsen of St. Luke's told the Kansas City Star that hospitals in the city's metropolitan area are “bursting at the seams.”