‘Our patients are not showing up.’ UK Hospital says ER use halved during pandemic.
Doctors at the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital’s emergency department noticed an odd thing happening over the past month as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the region.
Sick and injured people largely disappeared.
The typical 300 or so daily arrivals at the emergency department have fallen by more than half to about 130 on average since early March, UK doctors said Friday at a news conference.
It’s unlikely that Central Kentuckians suddenly stopped having heart attacks, strokes and severe abdominal pain, or that kids are not breaking their arms or suffering deep cuts from backyard accidents, the doctors said. More likely is that people are avoiding hospitals — even when they really need to go — because they’re scared of catching the novel coronavirus from patients who are infected.
Similar no-show stories are being repeated at hospital emergency rooms around the country, worrying doctors who say people could be putting their lives at risk by not seeking health care right away for serious ailments.
“Our patients are not showing up,” said Dr. Daniel Moore, UK HealthCare’s assistant medical director of emergency medicine. “There is talk in the media about staying home, which is certainly appropriate if you don’t have an emergency condition. But what we have seen is that the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction.”
To reassure the community, Moore and several of his colleagues briefed reporters on the steps UK HealthCare is taking to protect its emergency departments during the pandemic. (UK HealthCare runs two Lexington hospitals, UK Chandler and Good Samaritan.)
New arrivals are immediately met and questioned about their condition by a triage nurse to avoid having a crowd gathering in the waiting area.
Those who appear to have coronavirus symptoms are taken to “the COVID pod,” an isolated area with its own staff and 24 beds that, on Friday, were half-filled with patients being evaluated. Presently, 80 to 90 percent of these patients are being discharged rather than admitted to the hospital because “they’re just not sick enough to remain,” Moore said.
UK Chandler Hospital’s emergency department has performed 1,800 tests for the coronavirus so far with only about 80 positive results, “so prevalence is still low,” Moore said.
“We’ve had very few staff members test positive right now. Our staff safety is of upmost important to us, so we can take care of our patients,” he said.
People who are suffering from something other than the coronavirus are taken to the traditional emergency department, although the staff is currently fully covered in personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves. Even the hospital’s cleaning staff, which disinfects everything between patients, is clad in protective gear, the doctors said.
Someone entering the hospital for a non-coronavirus health emergency should not have any contact during their stay with a person infected with the virus, the doctors said.
“So basically, we have two emergency departments at this time. We got a real advantage in Kentucky because we were able to see what hospitals in Washington state set up, and also in New York,” said Dr. Joel Hamm, one of the hospital’s emergency physicians.
St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead also issued a news release Saturday outlining steps it has taken to protect incoming patients from COVID-19 and seeking to reassure the public that going to the emergency room is safe.
St. Claire said it, too, has seen a 50 percent drop in ER traffic and that patients are coming in sicker than before.
“We’ve seen multiple individuals present in extremes due to untreated congestive heart failure or COPD because they’ve delayed seeking treatment. We’ve also seen several cases that would have initially been a routine surgical case evolve into a surgical emergency due to delays in seeking treatment,” said Dr. Phillip Overall, emergency room physician and St Claire’s medical director for pandemic response.
Central Kentuckians have a higher probability of being infected with the virus in a random passing on the street than they do by entering the hospital, the UK doctors said.
“We are doing everything in our power to segment these patients,” Moore said. “If you’re worried about getting the coronavirus coming to you through the emergency department, that risk is exceedingly low right now.”
Herald-Leader staff writer Karla Ward contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 5:16 PM.
