Urgent care clinics fill up as COVID-19 surge strains hospitals

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH-TV) — Multiple urgent attraction clinics connected Wednesday said much patients are turning to them arsenic hospitals capable up.

TaQuita Taylor, a household caregiver practitioner who owns Children Express Care Clinic connected the northeast side, says she’s seeing astir 50% much patients present than she did 2 weeks ago. She says galore of those patients archer her they came to her due to the fact that they saw the hospitals were filling up with COVID patients and feared they couldn’t get successful for different procedures.

Taylor says astir of their ailments crook retired to beryllium thing she tin dainty anyway.

“I would accidental 90% of our patients, we tin grip what they contiguous with arsenic acold arsenic symptoms,” she said.

As of Tuesday — the astir caller time for which information is disposable — conscionable nether 3,000 Hoosiers were successful the infirmary with COVID-19, astir treble the fig from a period earlier and adjacent to the grounds of 3,460 acceptable connected Nov. 30, 2020.

Hospitals person go truthful strained, they person asked for and received assistance from the National Guard and from active-duty subject aesculapian teams. This is causing ripple effects passim the wellness attraction system.

• National Guard troops deployed to St. Vincent infirmary owed to accrued COVID-19 cases
• IU Health requests assistance from National Guard, says request and strain ‘has ne'er been greater’
• US Navy squad deployed to Indiana to enactment IU Health
• Navy squad to assistance IU Health Methodist Hospital ‘in areas of top need’

Community Health Network says its MedCheck urgent attraction clinics could spot triple their mean volumes, owed successful ample portion to radical seeking COVID tests. Community Health spokesperson Kris Kirschner says radical seeking urgent attraction services should utilize telehealth services if possible. She says COVID are disposable tests done superior attraction physicians. At-home tests are a reliable enactment arsenic well.

Taylor says astir a 4th of the patients she is seeing are coming successful for COVID tests. So far, she says she has capable unit and instrumentality to grip the other demand. She says those who can’t get into an ER oregon large urgent attraction session should bash immoderate probe and spot what other is available.

“Before you spell to an urgent attraction clinic, telephone to cognize our procedures arsenic acold arsenic COVID testing, whether you request to hold successful the car oregon if you tin locomotion in,” she said.

Taylor says the champion mode to assistance instrumentality unit disconnected wellness attraction providers specified arsenic her is to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Even if idiosyncratic inactive gets sick, she says it tin drastically trim their chances of needing hospitalization. Almost each COVID patients successful Indiana hospitals are unvaccinated.