(WXYZ) — For Shannon Ziegler of Westland, a trip to the emergency room a few weeks ago was unlike any she’d ever experienced. She is diabetic and had chest pains and other symptoms, and was concerned she was having a heart attack.
"Was triaged right away. They did an EKG, ordered a chest X-ray, blood work. That was all done,” said Ziegler.
Although the test results came back clear on her MyChart, she spent more than 10 hours waiting in the lobby and a chair in the hallway until a doctor was able to see her and send her home.
“It was almost 12 hours of waiting,” said Ziegler. "Emergencies kept on happening that were more severe than mine, that's what they kept telling me every time I asked.”
From Trinity Health to Henry Ford to Michigan Medicine to Corewell Health, local hospitals tell me they’re all seeing an increase in patients. Everything from slip and falls on the ice to respiratory illnesses like COVID, RSV, and flu.
“The hospitals, as I indicated, are very full right now; they always get very full in respiratory virus season,” said Dr. Matthew Sims, Director of Infectious Diseases Research at Corewell Health East.
Doctors Matthew Sims and CJ Gibson from Corewell Health say it’s been a particularly bad season for respiratory illness, with influenza accounting for 10% of their ER visits. They called a virtual press conference urging patients who have more mild symptoms to call their doctor or visit an urgent care instead.
“They (ERs) are really busy in part because people do overuse them for things that probably don't need that setting, but once they’re there, you have to examine them and do your full evaluation,” said Dr. Sims. “The problem becomes when people are sort of using the ER as their primary care or more of an urgent care instead of an emergency room... If you just kind of have the aches and pains and fever associated with flu, that's a good reason to call your doctor or go to an urgent care.”
“Make sure your symptoms match the setting. What I mean by that is that if you have a sprained ankle, that's not something you need to come to the urgent care for,” said Dr. Gibson. “There is a disruption in the level of care we are able to give people when we’re seeing so many people that don't necessarily need to be in the emergency department.”
Dr. Ali Shuayto is a local ER physician but is also the Medical Director of the Heights Urgent Care in Dearborn Heights. He says his urgent care is also feeling the surge in respiratory illness, seeing 2-3x more patients than usual. However, because of what he’s been seeing in the ER, he turned his urgent care into a 24-hour operation and started offering IVs, blood tests, and more.
“We're bombarded in the hospitals, there’s people waiting hours and hours and hours,” said Dr. Shuayto. "Everybody is ER trained that works here (urgent care), so we're doing blood work, IVs, those things to try, again, to take some of that stress off the surrounding ERs that are around us because we know when someone needs to go to the ER.”
Dr. Shuayto says not only can urgent cares be cheaper, but his wait time is no more than 20-30 minutes. Corewell says their wait times, on average, are 2-4 hours, but we've also heard reports of wait times much longer than that, depending on severity and location. It's not just Corewell seeing a surge in patients.
"Like healthcare systems across the region, we are seeing an increase in patients seeking treatment at our emergency departments for illnesses including RSV and flu, as well as injuries caused by slips and falls in icy conditions," said a Henry Ford Spokesperson via email.
A Michigan Medicine spokesperson also said in an email, "University of Michigan Health is experiencing a higher volume of patients in the emergency department due to viral infections, including flu, COVID-19, and RSV. Some individuals require hospitalization, which is contributing to longer wait times."
If you do need to come into the ER, Corewell asks people to be patient and, if you’re sick, wear a mask. They also say it’s not too late to get a flu shot.
