Rochester, New York (WHAM) — Respiratory illnesses are causing significant concern in local hospitals as they grapple with existing challenges.
“This increase in illness is frankly putting a strain on our health care systems and their entire workforce,” said Dr. Marielena Vélez de Brown, Monroe County Public Health Commissioner.
Rochester Regional Health and the University of Rochester Medical Center are experiencing spikes in respiratory illnesses, leading to overcapacity.
“It is understandably a concern for us to have sufficient capacity for patients, with emergency departments being very congested and causing delays in care,” said Dr. Robert Mayo, chief medical officer of the Rochester Regional Health.
Influenza is currently the leading respiratory illness, followed by COVID-19 and RSV.
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This past weekend, Rochester Regional Health reached 150% capacity, while URMC was also over capacity, treating more than 1,100 patients.
“This creates long emergency room wait times for patients with non-critical needs, and means many admitted patients receive care in hallways while waiting for a room,” said Dr. Michael Apostolakos, chief medical officer of the Strong Memorial and Highland hospitals.
For now, neither hospital system believes the increase in respiratory illnesses will cause elective surgeries to stop.
“We’re in a very different cycle this time than at the beginning of the pandemic, where most COVID patients had much longer, longer stays,” Mayo said. “If we continue to trigger fairly significant capacity issues, we will certainly need to look more at the extreme measures we have taken during the pandemic, but so far we have not needed to do that.”
Due to overcapacity concerns, both hospital systems are advising people to use video visits via their smartphone or computer, go to their primary care provider or an urgent care center for illnesses and injuries less serious.
“There’s no way to know right now if we’ve reached our peak. It’s just impossible to say,” Vélez said of Brown. “But what the community can do to help us ensure that this is our peak is to get vaccinated, stay home, wear masks if you have to go out when you’re sick.”
Between Oct. 1, 2024, and Jan. 11 of this year, there were more than 8,700 cases of COVID-19, flu or RSV, according to the county dashboard. Health officials are urging people to get vaccinated as 24 people have died during this period.
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