ERs are now swamped with seriously ill patients -- but many don't even have COVID

[ffr]

Inside the emergency department at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Mich., staff members are struggling to care for patients who are showing up much sicker than they've ever seen.
-snip-

Months of treatment delays have exacerbated chronic conditions and worsened symptoms. Doctors and nurses say the severity of illness ranges widely and includes abdominal pain, respiratory problems, blood clots, heart conditions and suicide attempts, among others.

But there's nowhere to put them all...those long-term care floors are full too, with a mix of COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients. That means people coming to the ER are being warehoused for hours, even days, forcing ER staff to perform long-term care roles they weren't trained to do.
-snip-

Seventy to 100 ambulances pull in each day. "It's a lot," Dusang says, watching emergency medical service teams wheel their patients over to the triage nurse. "It's the highest I've ever seen in my career."

About three times a week, the ER arrives at a point where it just can't take any more patients, she explains. Then it sends out the alert for ambulances to divert patients to other hospitals.
-snip-

The number of ER patients is mostly back to normal, but patients are so much sicker

This isn't just happening at Sparrow.

"We are hearing from members in every part of the country," says Dr. Lisa Moreno, president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM). "The Midwest, the South, the Northeast, the West ... they are seeing this exact same phenomenon." - NPR

[Casady1]

1. Do these aholes

Know that their( antivaxers and politicians) have driven up the cost of healthcare for everyone.

[Champp]

2. Republicans get full credit for this ClusterWank

Republicans--and their darkside black-ops Russian propaganda troll Komrades--get full credit for creating this gawdawful Republican ClusterWank.

[cstanleytech]

10. To many of the Republican sheeple base only care about what they are told to care about

by the right wing controlled radio in this country as well as other right wing media outlets like Fox News.
That means unless those right wing media sources suddenly start telling the truth that the Republican politicians are to blame that most of the base Republican sheeple will continue to ignore it.

[Mopar151]

3. A FusterCluck!

Or, to be more accurate, a Fuster of Cucks! (Need to use those Republican terms correctly!)

[ShazzieB]

8. FusterCluck! I love it!

I'm going to have to start using that!

Hope you don't mind me stealing it.

[Mopar151]

17. It's all for the Cause!

Of Scourging Farging Bastiges!

[HUAJIAO]

4. I follow my county health department FB page closely.

They report on COVID every day- cases, hospitalized, died, recovered, etc.

You should see some of the ignorant moronic comments there from anti-vaxxers and anti-maskholes ! Just appalling...

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Thanks for the warning

Be cool, eat your vegetables, avoid risk where you can.

[ananda]

6. Something we don't talk about that much is the basic health of most Americans.

A lot of people here in the USA have serious health problems
due in part to diet, obesity, stress or any combination of'
those factors.

I'd say the stress level of at least half the country is extremely
high. This just makes overall health that much worse...
and of course makes vulnerability to Covid worse also.

[yardwork]

21. And poor access to regular healthcare.

We're the only supposedly "advanced" nation in the world that doesn't provide free or low-cost access to regular preventative care and treatment for all our people. Instead, we have this stupid for-profit commercial approach that provides great access to care for a few people and barely anything at all for the rest of us - including many children.

It's a mind-staggeringly stupid approach to providing healthcare that is enforced by the very people who suffer from it the most, as they march to the polls in their brainwashed angry fog and keep electing Republicans.

[IronLionZion]

7. Are they hiring new staff to replace the vaccine mandate quitters?

Or people don't want healthcare jobs anymore because it sucks. This is a hot mess that doesn't look like it will get better any time soon.

[Horse with no Name]

11. There is a very small percentage that didn't get vaccinated

The bigger issue is those who have left bedside nursing never to return because of the violent and crazy patients and families.

[Nululu]

12. Also too much illness and death

Many burned out before the vaccines were developed. Now they're seeing death of younger people and too much stupidity.

We had a nursing shortage before covid, it's worse now. Two of my doctors retired, far younger than I expected.

[Horse with no Name]

14. That too

One of the surgeons I work with not only retired but let his license lapse and he is only 50!
What this country has put and is putting the healthcare workers through will change the scope of medical care in this country and not for the better.

[Nululu]

15. Agreed

We've made a difficult job so much worse with covid. Not only the workload but all the ignorant jackals pretending expertise for all the wrong reasons.

[madville]

22. The three nurses I know that have quit

Are doing it because of burnout, poor management, and mediocre staff pay. Two are now traveling nurses making 3x the money and no mandatory OT.

[Dopers_Greed]

9. This even extends to non-emergency conditions

At least a few people I know who were previously healthy (me included) now have chronic health conditions after the last 1.5 years of this BS.

[ShazamIam]

13. We seem to be kind of on our own for health care, we can thank our for profit health care system. It

is such a gold mine, look at how private equity has increased the number of hospitals they now own.

Increase in private equity for profit hospitals. 1975-2019

https://www.statista.com/statistics/824788/total-number-of-for-profit-hospitals-in-the-us/

[Texaswitchy]

16. My housemate had have major surgery instead of minor surgery.

Damn anti-vax types.

[KentuckyWoman]

18. A lot of people delayed routine care the last nearly 2 years.

There has been an awful lot of if I ignore this it will go away. No insurance, no money. Can't afford it so suck it up and hope for the best.

[nitpicker]

19. Even if one had insurance and money

Some people were so afraid of taking resources away from Covid care, especially in March/April of 2000, that they decided to wait. Or had elective surgeries cancelled.

By the time I came back in in October, a polyp was giving me the finger.

[KentuckyWoman]

23. That was me too

Well not the polyp. Mine is cardiac. I could have raised a fuss but cardio appointments were hard to come by and I figure people more needy than me. Then I could not ignore it any more. For my age I probably did not lose much ground. I'll get back to 90% plus where I was. I hope you do too. I hope they all do.

[dixiegrrrrl]

24. saw a nice conformation that cases are down in our lill rural town.

Family member was in ER & ICU for 5 days last week, non-Covid related.
He was the only ICU patient all that time.

That's significant for our area. Nurses were telling me how insane the crunch was up till recently.