North Texas hospitals flooded with Covid-19 patients, Denton County ERs reaches 10-hour wait time
North Texas – Hospitals in the North Texas area are simply flooded with Covid-19 patients once again putting a lot of pressure to the hospitals and healthcare workers.
The unwanted effect of the Covid-19 Omicron-like waves is that other patients are marginalized since all the hospitals’ resources are allocated in Covid-19 patients’ treatment.
So is the case now as Denton County’s public health director said ER wait times at its hospitals can be as long as 10 hours or more.
The major reason, understandably, is the spike of Covid-19 patients.
“One of the most alarming things on hospital capacity that’s happened in every wave and is now happening with omicron is what they call an ER hold,” explained County Health Director Matt Richardson.
What this means for patients? In a simple explanation, the Covid-19 patients have flooded the hospitals occupying more beds than usual resulting with no enough beds to accommodate everyone else. Therefore, longer wait time is created until there is a free bed.
“Some are hours and some are multiple hours, maybe double-digit hours, in the ER waiting for a staffed bed,” Richardson said.
With the Omicron wave spreading in the area, the increased number of patients is not the only problem the local hospitals face. According to them, they are also facing staffing shortage because many of the healthcare workers are getting infected with virus despite the decent vaccination rate.
Richardson added that staffing shortage and resources allocation for Covid-19 patients also impact Denton County ICUs.