United States: In the latest findings, hospitals in the US are keeping elderly men and women waiting outside the ER for hours, even after physicians determine they need admission.
More about the serious findings
Hashem Zikry, an emergency medicine physician at UCLA Health, said ER hallways are “lined from end to end with patients on stretchers in various states of distress calling out for help, including a number of older patients,” as USA Today reported.
Physicians staffing ERs describe the problem of ‘ER boarding’ as severe, even worse than during the initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when hospitals were inundated with ill patients.
Experts suggest that boarding affects all ER patients, with adults aged 65 and above accounting for nearly 20 percent of total ER admissions. These older adults are particularly vulnerable to long waiting times for care.
A 2019 estimate suggests that about 10 percent of patients were boarded in ERs before receiving hospital care, with approximately 30 to 50 percent of them being older adult patients.
Aisha Terry, an associate professor of emergency medicine at George Washington University and the president of the board of the American College of Emergency Physicians said that “It’s a public health crisis,” as USA Today reported.
Reasons for long wait times – Experts
Close to a dozen doctors and researchers described the chaotic situation in ERs, attributing it to staff shortages.
Furthermore, administrators are allocating additional beds for patients undergoing lucrative procedures, leading to overcrowding in the ER.
Hospitals’ services are in high demand due to the aging population in the US. The number of patients being treated is increasing, as more people are living alone due to social isolation and consequently relying on home health and nursing home care. This results in delays in discharging patients, according to Arjun Venkatesh, emergency medicine chair at the Yale School of Medicine.
The impact of long ER waits on seniors, who are frail and have various medical problems, is particularly severe.
Once patients finally get a hospital bed, their stays are longer, and medical complications are more frequent. The research team found that older adults face a much higher risk of fatality in the hospital if they are left in the ER overnight, as it increases their chances of suffering from falls, infections, bleeding, heart attacks, strokes, and bedsores.
Kennedy added, “She wasn’t mobilized, she had nothing to cognitively engage her, she hadn’t eaten, and she became increasingly agitated, trying to get off the stretcher and arguing with staff,” and “After a prolonged hospital stay, she left the hospital more disabled than she was when she came in.”