Flu season surge means crowded emergency rooms, when to stay home

 

MICHIGAN -- This winter is proving to be a nasty flu and respiratory virus season across Michiana, packing hospital emergency rooms and leading some doctors to ring alarm bells.

The flu kills between 10 and 70,000 every year in the United States, however, most cases don't need emergency-level care. To keep hospital beds free for the sickest in our communities, some doctors are asking the public to make sure the emergency room is only for emergencies.

"The best thing is to try to make sure that your symptoms match your setting," said Dr. Charles Gibson, chief medical officer of Corewell Health in West Michigan. "When we get this many patients at once, even our normal staffing levels get strained to the limits."

"It's been a reasonably bad respiratory season so far," said Dr. Matthew Sims. "Flu has been on the rise."

Sims, director of infectious diseases research at Corewell Health in Southeast Michigan, said the flu currently has a positivity rate between 25 and 30 percent. Flu is on the rise while COVID is steady, and RSV is down in eastern Michigan, steady on the western side.

Right now, according to Sims, about 10 percent of total cases in the emergency room are for influenza. Of those, about 20 percent are getting admitted, of course, the most serious cases, some needing the ICU.

"If you have a sprained ankle, that's not something that you need to come to the emergency department for," Gibson said. "It doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt and that you don't need attention, it just means that we want to get you to the right place at the right time to get you the right level of care."

Corewell Health doctors pleaded with the public Thursday to remember the emergency room is only for emergencies.

"The problem becomes when people are sort of using the ER as sort of their primary care or an urgent care instead of as an emergency room," Sims said.

To encourage people not to use the ER as a first resort-- creating longer wait times for everyone-- Sims differentiated when flu is bad enough to call it an emergency.

"If you're having trouble breathing, if you're getting dehydrated because you're so sick, if you're just not able to function, you can't carry out your activities of daily living, that's good to come to the emergency room," he said. "If you just kind of have the aches and pains, the fever associated with flu, that's a good reason to call your doctor or go to urgent care."

"As much as we can save the hospital for the truly, most ill patients, the better off we'll be," Gibson said. "So again, i can't hammer it enough, make sure your symptoms match your setting."

Sims also said flu season lasts through May, so it's not too late to get this season's flu shot