What You Need To Know About H1N1
Oct 25, 2009 10:58 pm US/Eastern
H1N1 Causes Longer Wait Times At Emergency Rooms
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The H1N1 pandemic is pushing local pediatric emergency rooms past capacity and making wait times as long as six hours in some cases. At Miami Children's Hospital parents with sick kids had to struggle through a 3 ½ hour wait Sunday afternoon. Hospital doctors said the surge is directly connected to an increase in patients complaining of H1N1 flu like symptoms.
"We do try to tell the parents that there's a wait and the reason there's a wait," said Dr. Gloria Riefkhol. "Some parents do wait calmly, I have to tell you, other parents do get anxious."
It is taxing on both the patients and the staff. Hospital officials at Miami Children's said it has extra doctors and nurses on hand to try and handle the overflow.
"We are seeing a lot of kids," said Dr. Riefkhol. "Just because the doctor's office is closed a lot of families don't have insurance, so they use the emergency room and they come in because they don't have any other place to go."
Dr. Riefkhol estimates her staff sees about 200 patients a day with H1N1 symptoms. It's tough to say how many of those kids actually have the virus because the confirmation test takes a long time. She said her staff is diagnosing most with a "flu-like illness" and offering a prescription of Tamiflu. But the medication is not an instant fix. It can shorten the length of the illness. But it can add to the stress for some families on the weekends. That is because Tamiflu is sold only in adult doses and has to be re-estimated and cut down for each child based on their weight. That type of dosage is only available at specialty pharmacies and the hospital pharmacy. Miami Children's Hospital pharmacy is closed on weekends and many specialty pharmacies have yet another long wait for parents still frustrated by their ER wait.
"So it adds the stress to the family," Dr. Riefkhol said. "So, normally, what I do when I see them I tell them, 'look most of the disease is going to be mild otherwise we would be telling you need to stay with us.' So please take that to mind that we are going to give you meds to improve the course of the illness."
The frustration is not just for the patients. Doctors and nurses also feel the stress of getting to patients as quickly as possible. This is happening as many local pediatric ERs are seeing a shortage of supplies such as face masks. President Barack Obama has declared a state of emergency related to the pandemic. Hospital administrators hope that declaration will open up the national stockpile to replenish their supplies and hopefully ease their congestion as the flu season still has a long way to go.
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