“We continue to be pretty overwhelmed day-to-day, post-COVID. The need is high and the available treatment spaces we have are just not adequate,” said Dr. Emily Johnson, an emergency medicine physician at Keck Medicine of USC and associate medical director of the emergency room atOvercrowding impacts patient care and creates challenging working conditions for staff, Johnson said.
This is tough for ER staff to watch Johnson said, adding that many are still experiencing post-pandemic burnout. outside of Ronald Reagan to draw attention to continued issues related to overcrowding, but have had little success in inspiring policy change. Part of the surge in ER patients stems from the fact that many people stayed away from medical settings during the pandemic and as a result a lot of routine, elective and preventative health care was put off, said Dr. Ali Jamehdor, medical director of emergency services at Dignity Health St. Mary in Long Beach.
“It causes a ripple effect where patients are stuck in the ER for an endless period of time and patients keep walking through the door as walk-ins,” he said. “Sometimes we have to close down the hospital to ambulance access because we don’t have enough staff or space to deal with ambulance patients.”
“County hospitals do seem to have a higher volume because patients that are uninsured have a higher tendency to go to these hospitals understanding they are … more likely to get better resources once they are discharged,” he said, referring to outpatient care options.The shortage of recuperative care and skilled nursing home beds is not under the control of hospitals.
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