Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, Washington ER's showed signs of long wait times
Even before the COVID-19 outbreak overwhelmed hospitals in Washington with an influx of patients, limited testing kits and a severe lack of supplies like masks, medical centers in the state were facing a growing problem: longer waiting times in their emergency rooms.
According to a study from AutoInsurance.org that gathered emergency room data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, Washington has the country's 16th longest emergency room wait time. Among admitted patients, the median wait time for an inpatient room was 112 minutes.
For those patients in the emergency room that were not admitted for further evaluation and testing in Washington, the wait time was even longer: 182 minutes before being discharged. The long waits proved to be a deterrent for some seeking care, as the study found that 3% of emergency room patients left before being seen.
The researchers emphasized that the statistics were compiled before the current COVID-19 outbreak, so they do not take into account the current surge in activity. However, they do show that Washington's hospitals were already stretched thin before the virus outbreak.
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/seattlenews/article/long-washington-emergency-room-wait-times-study-15146392.php?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletterspi&utm_term=spi