Boise hospitals to patients: Please don’t avoid the ER. It’s safe and could save your life
Local hospitals are seeing another surprising ripple effect of the coronavirus pandemic: The usual flow of people into their emergency rooms has slowed to a trickle.
“What is concerning is the magnitude of this drop,” said Kenny Bramwell, system medical director for St. Luke’s Health System.
St. Luke’s emergency departments had 35% fewer patients come in during the month of April, compared with April 2019, Bramwell said.
It could be that some people who normally would come in for a sprained ankle, who don’t actually need ER care, are staying home. It could be that, with fewer people on the road due to the stay-home order, there aren’t quite as many car crashes. It could be that less intermingling means fewer people got the flu — another highly infectious disease that brings people through the doors of the ER.
But where are the patients with heart attacks? Strokes? Appendicitis?
After working for decades as a hospital emergency room physician, Bramwell worries this may be one explanation for their sudden disappearance: “People who are having significant medical issues who are potentially delaying their medical care out of fear .... of getting COVID and being exposed to COVID.”
Cardiologists have told him of “a few cases” where patients had chest pain, thought they were having a heart attack and chose to stay home.
Saint Alphonsus Health System CEO Odette Bolano sent a message out to patients this week urging them to come to the hospital and to keep seeking medical care from their doctors.
The Saint Alphonsus health system has seen ER visits drop by 30% to 40% since March 1, according to spokesperson Mark Snider. That’s about the same as what hospitals nationwide have seen, he noted.
“During the past two months, some individuals with chronic illnesses and urgent situations have postponed health care services in order to reduce the spread of the disease,” the message from Bolano said. “... We know that further postponement may threaten the health and well-being of the people and communities we serve. With that in mind, it is critical for patients with chronic and urgent health conditions to follow-up with their physicians now and know we are here and prepared to deliver the care you need safely.”
The Saint Alphonsus hospital in Boise is a regional trauma center. “Anecdotally, our trauma cases are staying about at average, so obviously people are still having car accidents, people are still needing to come in for trauma” care, Snider said.
Treasure Valley hospitals take ER precautions
Hospitals are taking precautions to make the ER “safer than most places you can go outside of your home,” Bramwell said. “We are totally willing and able to take care of your medical problems.”
Saint Alphonsus and St. Luke’s health systems are taking steps to minimize exposure for their patients and health care workers.
Their staff wear masks and other protective gear. They are screening people at the door for possible COVID-19. And if a patient has signs of COVID-19, they’re directed to a separate area. That offers “another layer of protection, and confidence that people can come in and be safe,” Snider said.
Earlier in the pandemic, a chronic shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) — especially masks — prompted an outcry from Idaho hospital workers who wanted more safeguards from the virus. Since then, Idaho has received more masks from the national stockpile, as well as PPE from other sources including donations.
Bramwell said last week that St. Luke’s was working toward providing masks not only to staff, but also to patients and visitors. At least one Saint Alphonsus clinic was providing child-sized masks to pediatric patients on Wednesday.
The local health systems halted their ‘bread and butter’ profit centers as they prepared for a wave of coronavirus patients. They postponed things like hip surgeries to make room for COVID-19 patients, but also to preserve masks, equipment and supplies that were scarce.
But with the exception of a major outbreak in Blaine County, Idaho hospitals didn’t see a crushing wave of COVID-19 after the state’s first case was reported March 13. With no elective procedures and a manageable number of COVID-19 patients, hospital business was slower than usual.
Saint Alphonsus has opened its surgeries back up, “but that doesn’t mean we’re letting down our guard,” Snider said.
The slowdown in overall patients doesn’t mean that COVID-19 isn’t real, or that it can’t overwhelm hospitals if it infects too much of Idaho’s population at once, or that people shouldn’t be concerned about it.
Bramwell and Snider said it’s a sign that Idahoans have done a good job of taking precautions, like social distancing, to slow the spread of the virus. They hope that will continue even as the state reopens for business.
“This is the most significant health event of our time,” Bramwell said. “This is like polio in the ’50s.”
