Sick people avoid ERs, due to fears of COVID-19
WOODBURY, Minn. (FOX 9) - People who need urgent medical care are not going to emergency rooms because they are afraid they will contract COVID-19, resulting in worsening conditions
Emergency room physician, Dr. Carolyn McClain has seen it firsthand.
“I have had several patients who were incredibly sick that should have been admitted days before they showed up at the Urgency Room. They should have been in a hospital and they said ‘I don’t want to go to the hospital because I don’t want to get COVID,’” said McClain who is the Medical Director of The Urgency Room.
According to McClain, emergency rooms have “clean” areas and medical staff screen potential patients before they come into the facility.
The Urgency Room, has three locations in the east metro, two are free of coronavirus patients and the Woodbury location is exclusively for those with the medical condition.
The Urgency Room is a company operated by a group of local emergency room physicians.
“COVID-19 doesn’t mean that pneumonia has gone away or appendicitis has gone away or kidney stones have gone away, they all still exist and we need to take care of those people as well,” McClain said.
She advises anyone who has a medical concern to call their family physician first, if they get no answer, go to an Urgency Room location or an emergency room.