After a stressful Friday in its emergency department caused by high patient volumes, the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington encouraged people to seek treatment elsewhere, and issued a press release specifying when patients should seek out urgent care instead of a trip to the emergency room.
To clear room in the emergency department, the release encouraged people with relatively minor issues to seek care at UVM’s Urgent Care Clinic on College Parkway in Colchester, and listed conditions that the urgent care clinic could treat, such as colds, sprains, minor cuts, nausea and rashes.
However, the press release emphasized that “patients experiencing medical emergencies should continue seeking care at UVM Medical Center’s Emergency Department.”
Although it is not fully clear why there was a surge in patients needing emergency care, the UVM hospital and all hospitals regionwide have been increasingly busy, said Annie Mackin, the hospital’s spokesperson.
“Today there were even more people than normal and it seems to be happening all over the region,” she said. “All the hospitals are reporting the same challenges.”
While there was no clear cause for the increase in patients, Mackin said, respiratory viruses in general are higher than normal this time of year.
“A lot of people are really sick all over the region and they’re all seeking care,” she said. “There’s no real room in the system.”
To help patients decide where to seek treatment, the press release provided a link to a UVM Health Network page designed to guide patients to one of three departments — emergency department, urgent care and primary care — through a series of questions.
The press release serves as a reminder to patients that urgent care can handle a lot more things than people may realize, Mackin said.
“It’s just a good day to remind people that if they can go to urgent care or call their primary care doctor, that’s better for them, and for the hospital,” Mackin said.
