Patients waiting longer for care in New Hampshire emergency departments
Hospital officials say departments have been over capacity
Hospital officials say departments have been over capacity
Hospital officials say departments have been over capacity
New Hampshire hospital officials are asking people to be patient as they deal with some emergency departments that are over capacity.
Health officials said that unless it's a serious medical issue, you might be waiting longer to receive care, but they said everyone will still get it.
"You never know how many patients are going to be presented on any given day," said Darin Roark, president and COO of Wentworth-Douglass Hospital. "You never know how sick they're going to be."
Roark said his emergency department has been averaging 105% capacity since October.
"We are busy," he said. "But we are available to the community, and we want to be able to meet those needs."
Wentworth-Douglass Hospital has had to get creative about how to give everyone care, such as using hallway beds.
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"We want to do everything we can to get patients out of the waiting room, and sometimes being treated in a hallway bed is the next best level of care we can provide," Roark said.
Some hospitals in the state said their capacity percentage hovers between the high 80s and mid-90s, which has become the new norm. But officials said people who aren't experiencing an emergency can go to a primary care doctor or an urgent care center before going to an emergency department.
"For example, if an urgent care is not available or your primary care can't get you in and it's not an emergent need, we ask people to be patient with all of us," said Jennifer Torosian, the associate chief nursing officer at Catholic Medical Center.
Roark said the situation is complicated. He said some people can't leave the emergency department because they can't get care elsewhere because of staffing shortages and other factors.
"We encourage people, if you need emergency care, please don't worry about the wait time because the worst thing that can happen is letting the illness get worse or someone to delay care," he said.
Roark went on to say that hallway beds are just the start, and they hope to implement more ways to get people care outside of the emergency department, such as a "hospital at home" program planned for later this year.