ERs reach record capacity as hospitals are inundated with patients
By Jessica Bartlett Globe Staff,Updated June 1, 2022, 10:11 a.m.
Before the pandemic, South Shore Health typically would receive 80 to 90 ambulances a day as the region’s only Level II trauma center south of Boston, caring for critically injured patients from a number of communities.
Yet 2½ years into the pandemic, with COVID numbers at the hospital trending much lower than in the January surge, the number of ambulances arriving every day is far exceeding its old pace. Dr. Jason Tracy, chief of emergency medicine at South Shore Health, said the emergency department is getting 105 ambulances a day on average.
On a particularly bad day two weeks ago, there were 165 patients in its 70-bed emergency department. While over the course of a single day the emergency room would normally see 280 patients, on average, two weeks ago it had nearly 380.
COVID cases account for some of the emergency department’s volume, but the hospital is also dealing with “a constellation of factors,” Tracy said, which range from sicker patients who delayed care during the pandemic and an unprecedented volume of behavioral health patients, to people who are having trouble accessing more mundane services like MRIs.
“We would have expected the spring/early summer to be a low volume period of time. It’s turned out to be our busiest. Which has us worried,” said Tracy. The summer is usually the busiest time for the South Shore hospital, and “if we continue to have additional volume on top of our current volume, it will be even more challenging.”
The overcrowding is not unique to South Shore. Scores of health systems say they are dealing with record emergency department volume, sicker patients, a compounding mental health crisis, and an ever-beleaguered workforce.
“It’s absolutely unrelenting — people coming, sick people coming, and people who aren’t that sick showing up in the ER more so than usual,” said Dr. Andrew Artenstein, chief physician executive for Baystate Health, which runs the largest hospital in Western Massachusetts. “This time of year you expect [that around] Memorial Day you get a relief.”
Executives say patients are coming in to emergency departments because they can’t access primary care or mental health care, or have seen their health deteriorate after delaying treatment for illnesses earlier in the pandemic. Hospitals are having a hard time discharging patients who should not go directly home, due to staffing shortages and longer stays at nursing homes and rehabilitation centers. And the strains on inpatient care ripple all the way to the emergency department.
The ripples extend even further: Hospitals that care for the sickest patients sometimes have have to decline patient transfer requests from smaller or less wealthy ones, leaving the latter institutions to scramble for alternatives.
“What we’re seeing across the whole health care system is there is still more demand for care than there ever has been,” said Dr. Paul Biddinger, chief preparedness and continuity officer for Mass General Brigham.
The tidal wave of illness comes just as COVID cases have become less of a burden for hospitals. Two-thirds of COVID patients currently in Massachusetts hospitals would have been there regardless of their infection because of other health issues. Though it has caused fewer cases of serious illness in recent weeks, COVID has complicated hospital operations. Patients with COVID still need to be isolated, and staff caring for them have to wear personal protective equipment, both of which eat up more time and resources.
Biddinger said Massachusetts General Hospital has hit “capacity disaster” more times in the last three months than it ever had before. The designation means the hospital’s usual actions to alleviate crowding, such as mobilizing teams to manage capacity and not accepting most new patient transfers, are insufficient. While he didn’t provide specifics, Biddinger said the hospital has set new patient volume records that were 10 percent higher than previous records.
Biddinger said the consequences go beyond just patients receiving care in ER hallways, or waiting longer to be seen. Studies have shown that patients who need to be admitted, but are waiting in the emergency department for a bed — a phenomenon known as boarding — end up in the hospital longer than patients who receive inpatient care more quickly.
“There are significant patient care consequences to this,” Biddinger said.
The health system is bolstering its programs that manage capacity among its nine acute-care hospitals to identify which have availability for new patients and transfers, and it is also trying to shift more care to the home…
These are no longer fun to watch anymore. Way to much focus on freaks, though I do realize why Fleccas covers them. They epitomize everything wrong in the world.
I will say this, the nurse at the 7:45 mark assaulting that lady in the wheel chair needs her head caved in, likewise the prick who did not intervene but just stood around and filmed it. Just imagine if that was your mum or grandmother. What would you do upon seeing that? I’d be throwing more than one fist.
It was something about more polar air coming to Australia so it was probably a sheep weather alert, keep them locked up inside otherwise the polar bears will eat them.
It’s happening. Norway is heading towards a complete control society where the state wants to know everything you do.
We have earlier talked about how Norway is a leading country when it comes to digital ID. It is almost a must in order to live modern life. People have to use it for online banking and many other things.
Now it turns out Norway wants even more control over citizens. The State Statistics Central bureau (SSB) in Norway is now demanding to know the food purchases of citizens and track all card payments.
Mike Peleg, a 75 years old father & grandfather, was jailed for 1 day, as he refused to pay a 500 shekels ($150) fine, for going to the beach during the 1st lockdown (Apr. 2020).
Mike chose prison over a fine, saying “I’m not a slave”.
(Scroll to testimony)
🇮🇱 2/2
Some of Mike’s words:
“Yes, I broke the lockdown.
I live near the beach & going to the beach is my healthy habit, physically & mentally.
I go every day for a few hours, it’s my booster for life. It’s my mental stabilizer, my natural antidepressant pill.”
Some of that material is a bit der, and some highly interesting such as boosting adrenaline after a study session to create better long-term memory. Backed by proper science, not the “Show Me The Money” Fauxci scientism
Prince Charles and Prince William gave heartfelt speeches after musicians including Aussie star Jason Donovan, Diana Ross, Alicia Keys and Queen + Adam Lambert took to the stage.
Yes Cold Hands I was early I apologise.
Not sure if the article was linked but it discussed the weakening men through culture and feminism. Fascinating read
Information on cold weather is something that really needs to be supressed, but i spose it’s only the “weather” when it’s cold & Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming when it’s hot.
‘Just not enough houses’: 97K Qlders in crisis as rental market shrinks
Queensland is in the grips of its worst rental crisis on record with just 0.7 per cent vacancy rates forcing families to live in their cars as experts say there is no sign of reprieve in sight and things may yet get worse.
***
I wonder what effect the QLD State Government’s actions had when they stiff-armed landlords during the Covid lockdown.
A new study by Israeli researchers and published in Nature has revealed an increase of over 25 percent in cardiovascular-related emergency calls in the young-adult population, following the rollout of COVID vaccines, among both males and females. No similar increase was found due to COVID infection alone.
Israel health authorities and the U.S. Centers of Disease Control (CDC) have acknowledged a link between COVID vaccines and specific cardiovascular complications. The risk of myocarditis after receiving a second vaccine dose is now estimated to be between 1 in 3000 to 1 in 6000 in men aged 16 to 24.
Podium?
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Silver
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They usually take threads like this down almost immediately
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Good Moaning from the Aslo Ran
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#inflation #tuckercarlson #tucker
Economic Hurricane Is Coming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs4qnXer3w4
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D Day landings this day. Which brings to mind this article
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Sorry Shy Ted. Did not mean to report you
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Not the Vax
Boston Globe
ERs reach record capacity as hospitals are inundated with patients
By Jessica Bartlett Globe Staff,Updated June 1, 2022, 10:11 a.m.
Before the pandemic, South Shore Health typically would receive 80 to 90 ambulances a day as the region’s only Level II trauma center south of Boston, caring for critically injured patients from a number of communities.
Yet 2½ years into the pandemic, with COVID numbers at the hospital trending much lower than in the January surge, the number of ambulances arriving every day is far exceeding its old pace. Dr. Jason Tracy, chief of emergency medicine at South Shore Health, said the emergency department is getting 105 ambulances a day on average.
On a particularly bad day two weeks ago, there were 165 patients in its 70-bed emergency department. While over the course of a single day the emergency room would normally see 280 patients, on average, two weeks ago it had nearly 380.
COVID cases account for some of the emergency department’s volume, but the hospital is also dealing with “a constellation of factors,” Tracy said, which range from sicker patients who delayed care during the pandemic and an unprecedented volume of behavioral health patients, to people who are having trouble accessing more mundane services like MRIs.
“We would have expected the spring/early summer to be a low volume period of time. It’s turned out to be our busiest. Which has us worried,” said Tracy. The summer is usually the busiest time for the South Shore hospital, and “if we continue to have additional volume on top of our current volume, it will be even more challenging.”
The overcrowding is not unique to South Shore. Scores of health systems say they are dealing with record emergency department volume, sicker patients, a compounding mental health crisis, and an ever-beleaguered workforce.
“It’s absolutely unrelenting — people coming, sick people coming, and people who aren’t that sick showing up in the ER more so than usual,” said Dr. Andrew Artenstein, chief physician executive for Baystate Health, which runs the largest hospital in Western Massachusetts. “This time of year you expect [that around] Memorial Day you get a relief.”
Executives say patients are coming in to emergency departments because they can’t access primary care or mental health care, or have seen their health deteriorate after delaying treatment for illnesses earlier in the pandemic. Hospitals are having a hard time discharging patients who should not go directly home, due to staffing shortages and longer stays at nursing homes and rehabilitation centers. And the strains on inpatient care ripple all the way to the emergency department.
The ripples extend even further: Hospitals that care for the sickest patients sometimes have have to decline patient transfer requests from smaller or less wealthy ones, leaving the latter institutions to scramble for alternatives.
“What we’re seeing across the whole health care system is there is still more demand for care than there ever has been,” said Dr. Paul Biddinger, chief preparedness and continuity officer for Mass General Brigham.
The tidal wave of illness comes just as COVID cases have become less of a burden for hospitals. Two-thirds of COVID patients currently in Massachusetts hospitals would have been there regardless of their infection because of other health issues. Though it has caused fewer cases of serious illness in recent weeks, COVID has complicated hospital operations. Patients with COVID still need to be isolated, and staff caring for them have to wear personal protective equipment, both of which eat up more time and resources.
Biddinger said Massachusetts General Hospital has hit “capacity disaster” more times in the last three months than it ever had before. The designation means the hospital’s usual actions to alleviate crowding, such as mobilizing teams to manage capacity and not accepting most new patient transfers, are insufficient. While he didn’t provide specifics, Biddinger said the hospital has set new patient volume records that were 10 percent higher than previous records.
Biddinger said the consequences go beyond just patients receiving care in ER hallways, or waiting longer to be seen. Studies have shown that patients who need to be admitted, but are waiting in the emergency department for a bed — a phenomenon known as boarding — end up in the hospital longer than patients who receive inpatient care more quickly.
“There are significant patient care consequences to this,” Biddinger said.
The health system is bolstering its programs that manage capacity among its nine acute-care hospitals to identify which have availability for new patients and transfers, and it is also trying to shift more care to the home…
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These are no longer fun to watch anymore. Way to much focus on freaks, though I do realize why Fleccas covers them. They epitomize everything wrong in the world.
I will say this, the nurse at the 7:45 mark assaulting that lady in the wheel chair needs her head caved in, likewise the prick who did not intervene but just stood around and filmed it. Just imagine if that was your mum or grandmother. What would you do upon seeing that? I’d be throwing more than one fist.
The vision will make you angry ladies and gents.
Hopefully the lumpy cow has been charged.
***********
Fleccas Talks:
THIS WEEK IN CULTURE #99
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Very troubling scenes at 7:45. Just horrible.
*******
Fleccas Talks:
THIS WEEK IN CULTURE #99
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Shy Ted says:
June 4, 2022 at 7:55 am
They usually take threads like this down almost immediately
It’s gone now – what was it about?
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Twelfth man.
And he predicted I mite come, too.
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Dems Admit They’re Nazis ReeEEeE Stream 06-03-22
Salty Cracker
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Global warming narrative interruptus?
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It’s gone now – what was it about?
It was something about more polar air coming to Australia so it was probably a sheep weather alert, keep them locked up inside otherwise the polar bears will eat them.
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As if it hasn’t been cold enough already. I’ll keep an eye out for the polar bears…
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Fat T, the thread was about the cold weather sweeping Oz. Lifted from here with a bit more detail. Links in the first 2 articles</a
https://media.bom.gov.au/
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Depp Wins! Just DISTRACTION? Russell Brand Reacts
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Climate disruption!!!
Frankenvax now!
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The Absurd Search For Dark Matter
Veritasium
Inside Stairmaster Dan’s head?
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Ricky Gervais ‘slayed the woke dragon’ in ‘taboo’ busting special
Sky News Straya
Also picked up by Salty Cracker above (c. 23 min mark).
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Kaysee’s conspicuous by their absence.
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Twelfth man.
Not Billy Birmingham?
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Norway wants to track citizens food purchases
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Pride
One day vs One month
.
The rest of the world vs the middle east
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Mike Peleg
🇮🇱 1/2
(Scroll to testimony)
🇮🇱 2/2
Article on his story.
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Alex Jones RETURNS! – Friday Night Tights #200!
Salty Cracker appears (as a special guest at Alex Jones request) at c. 2h mark.
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The State Statistics Central bureau (SSB) in Norway is now demanding to know the food purchases of citizens and track all card payments.
The SSB needs to be burned to the ground.
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Big Bad John.
Tribute to Miners (Big John by Jimmy Dean 1961)
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Hope you’ve all seen the latest vid in the Ukr-Ru war. Those brave, brave reporters
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Andre Antunes:
Auctioneer Championship goes METAL!
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Teh first casualty of war ‘n’ all…
But, seriously, how much MSM News today is NOT fake news?
Were there Easter Bunnies off stage, directing the actors and extras?
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Love Salty’s stolen Hitler-Biden meme
Hitler phones Biden again
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Cash:
Cash 2.0 Great Dane visits an indoor shopping mall 25
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Powerline’s The Week in Pictures: Over-Heard Edition
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A couple of days early, Black Ball.
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Former Prime Minister Imran Khan claims US backed regime change in Pakistan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua5bjbCGbwg
***
The English Sky News interviewer jumps from what evidence do you have to you deserved it because you didn’t condemn Russia.
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The “narcissist’s prayer”, literally.
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#ToyotaCentury #V12 #JDM
I Just Bought A $20,000 Japanese Rolls-Royce – The V12 Toyota Century
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uqgHZxBE8A
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Dichead of the weeeeek
https://youtu.be/qv73TiJW3aE
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Huberman with Dr Wendy Suzuki on tools and protocols to improve memory and mood
https://youtu.be/099hgtRoUZw
A bit more background from the previous episode with Huberman here
https://youtu.be/szqPAPKE5tQ
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Some of that material is a bit der, and some highly interesting such as boosting adrenaline after a study session to create better long-term memory. Backed by proper science, not the “Show Me The Money” Fauxci scientism
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Garrison
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🤔
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Yes Cold Hands I was early I apologise.
Not sure if the article was linked but it discussed the weakening men through culture and feminism. Fascinating read
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Weakening of men
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Tales from the American proxy war:
Ukraine war: The Brits who travelled to fight Russia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYpCGCAikmk
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Shy Ted / Old Bloke – thanks for that info on BoM
Information on cold weather is something that really needs to be supressed, but i spose it’s only the “weather” when it’s cold & Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming when it’s hot.
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Funny how heatwaves are described in anthropogenic terms – remember ‘the angry summer’?
But when it’s cold, it’s just cold, never Gaia being angry because of bad humans or anything like that.
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johanna says:
June 5, 2022 at 12:12 pm
And the cold kills many more people than the heat plus the shortened growing periods create famines.
They know there’s cold periods coming so the fight against CAGW appears to be designed to make the effects of the cold period worse.
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Courier Mail
***
I wonder what effect the QLD State Government’s actions had when they stiff-armed landlords during the Covid lockdown.
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test.
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He’s a good man. A shame climate alarmists will not debate him.
I say good luck to anyone in the alarmist community who wishes to do so.
**********
Tony Heller:
In 2008 Obama promised to make energy prices skyrocket, and fourteen years later the Washington Post finally figured it out.
Better Late Than Never
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Pentecost Sunday: The birthday of the Church
To those who are celebrating ….
Happy Feast of Pentecost
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New study links COVID vaccines to 25% increase in cardiac arrest
for both males & females
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mh says:
June 5, 2022 at 1:50 pm
I wonder what effect the QLD State Government’s actions had when they stiff