Media Highlights Freestanding ER's Essential Role During COVID-19
AUGUST 2021 — Freestanding Emergency Centers (FECs) across the nation have stepped up to serve a critical role throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. While FECs have helped treat both Covid-positive and non-Covid emergency patients and have reduced burdens on many hospital systems, facilities are facing additional challenges amid the most recent Covid-19 wave. The following recent media reports highlight some of these challenges as well as the important role FECs play in the health care industry:
San Antonio, Texas television station KENS-5 spoke with the head of a major hospital's emergency department about how the recent surge in COVID patients in South Texas is affecting the hospital’s ability to admit patients, while reporting on how Freestanding ERs in the surrounding areas are filling the gap in patient care.
“We’ve had first responders and EMS reach out to us to potentially drop off patients that are not as critical,” said Dr. Gerardo Ortiz, Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director of the Lonestar 24 Hour ER in New Braunfels.
"Typically, if you have a patient in a freestanding ER that stays over 24 hours you have to report that to the state," Dr. Ortiz said. "We've had ICU patients that have stayed over 60 hours with us because you call San Antonio and Austin and they're number 80-something on the list for an ICU bed. We've had COVID patients with us that have been on oxygen for 20 hours”
East Texas television station KETK reported on how a Longview Freestanding ER is having to take care of not only emergency care patients but ICU level patients, without staffing or funding support from the state of Texas — unlike their hospital counterparts. The Longview FEC also shared how they are relying on some of their ICU-trained nurses to do extra work and teach skills to their emergency room nurses to meet the demand of the current COVID-19 wave.
The patients who can’t get into hospitals are going to free-standing ER’s, leaving staff to care for a level of patients they never have before. Other medical facilities like free-standing emergency rooms aren’t approved to receive help from the state right now but are also experiencing a staff shortage.
“We’re having to take care of not only emergency care patients but also ICU level care patients,” said Jeffrey Beers, a physician at Hospitality Health ER.
The Houston Chronicle reports hospital capacity issues are affecting smaller hospitals and Freestanding ERs when it comes to transferring patients out to receive a more critical and/or long-term level of care. One Houston area Freestanding ER explained how their facility has had to hold patients who need a hospital bed for days. The Chronicle also reports on how the transfer problem extends beyond COVID-19.
For small facilities, what once was a routine transport to local hospitals has become a frantic process of cold calling and cajoling health care providers in hopes of securing an open bed. In the meantime, patients who must receive intensive care languish in places that are unable to provide it.
By Thursday afternoon, 543 patients in the 25-county hospital region anchored by Houston were waiting for staffed hospital beds, according to the SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council; 62 more waited to be admitted to an ICU.
More recent COVID-19 headlines from across Texas:
Austin, Texas: Local ER staff requesting emergency COVID funding from state to address staffing shortage
Houston, Texas: COVID patients overflowing into free-standing ERs as local hospitals are stretched thin
San Antonio, Texas: Neighboring counties look to San Antonio for care as delta surge squeezes hospital capacity
Lubbock, Texas: Star ER another option for people to go to for COVID-19
Corpus Christi, Texas: "Its not enough"; local nurses call on the state for more medical personnel
Corpus Christi, Texas: 'We’re tired, we’re exhausted, we’re overwhelmed': Local doctors look to the state for staffing help
Corpus Christi, Texas: Corpus Christi region ICU beds full; COVID-19 cases in young population increasing
Tyler, Texas: Freestanding ERs holding COVID patients for days due to lack of hospital beds
Longview, Texas: East Texas doctor says healthcare system is being overwhelmed