BOSTON — Doctors are seeing a significant drop in the number of people going to the emergency room during the coronavirus outbreak even when they need the most help.
“I’d say if you’re sick come to the hospital,” said Dr. Michael VanRooyen, Chief of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “I’m just afraid people are staying at home too long, and if they’re ill we want to be able to take care of them.”
Dr. VanRooyen says there’s been a 40% decrease in visits to the ER recently, and that’s concerning to doctors.
“I just had a woman earlier today that delayed coming to the emergency department because she had chest pain for several days and didn’t take it seriously and didn’t want to come to the emergency department,” said Dr. VanRooyen. “She turned out to have a heart attack, and her care was complicated.”
Dr. VanRooyen says he understands people are worried about catching COVID-19, but as they delay their hospital care, their conditions are only getting worse.
“The patients that I see, a greater number get admitted to the hospital and a greater number get admitted to the intensive care unit,” said Dr. VanRooyen.
If you need to go to the ER, Dr. VanRooyen says rest assured COVID-19 patients are being isolated from non-COVID patients, and they’re constantly sanitizing all areas.
“I think this is about the safest place I could be because we have very strict infection control precautions,” said Dr. VanRooyen. “Our employees actually get COVID infections actually less than the regular population, we clean our rooms fastidiously.”
Many people also assume the E.R. is packed with COVID-19 patients right now, but Dr. VanRooyen says that’s simply not the case. There’s actually no wait time in the E.R. right now at Brigham and Women’s hospital.
Download the free Boston 25 News app for up-to-the-minute push alerts
>> Complete local and national coronavirus coverage here
RESOURCES:
- Massachusetts Coronavirus Information
- Boston Coronavirus Information
- Follow us on Facebook and Twitter | Watch Boston 25 NOW
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/7QOJU3BNCJERBNKJC5LWTBYFLU.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/2LL6YV4SWBH7PBZLCLYSY6C3VA.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/A6ITVQI6VZF5TIX3ERJ63S3JBY.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/NC6MQJC7CFGHJFVZVZRK223T54.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/MLGA6XU2LNGDFEUWVA3EC7FS3M.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/HBQRBSBXJBF6FPK2D7NBTN2MCY.jpeg)