Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Citing overcrowding in emergency rooms and staff burnout after 20 months of dealing with COVID, Rhode Island health officials are urging the public to seek what they call the “most appropriate settings” for medical care, rather than continuing to crowd hospital emergency departments.
Physicians from Rhode Island Hospital and Kent Hospital joined Rhode Island Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott Wednesday at Rhode Island Hospital, issuing an appeal to the public, what she called the first step in a public information campaign to raise awareness of the problem.
“I’m here with our colleagues, because this is a public health concern, and it could become a patient safety concern, but we have an opportunity to do something about it,” Alexander-Scott said. The first step, she said is public messaging.
“We need to insure that people are educated about what our health systems are facing,” she said.
“At this time of year in Rhode Island Hospital, we would normally have 60 to 80 beds open to be able to care for patients,” said Dr. Stephen Traub, attending physician for emergency medicine at Rhode Island Hospital. “Some days we may be down to a dozen or less.”
The health experts urged Rhode Islanders to get the COVID and flu vaccines, and to look to alternatives to emergency departments when feeling sick.
“There are express cares, urgent cares, tele-health, there are just an ample amount of opportunities to take the lower acuity illnesses that need to be seen and take them to another area so our emergency departments can be able to care for the sickest of our sick,” said Dr. Paari Gopalakrishnan, Kent Hospital’s Interim President and Chief Operating Officer.
