With Kansas City hospitals short on beds, when should you go to the ER vs. urgent care?

The current COVID-19 surge is causing hospitals to fill up across the Kansas City metro area. Emergency rooms are seeing longer wait times, limited beds and more staff out sick.

Local hospitals like St. Luke’s are still prioritizing critical patients who come through the emergency room, but the recent influx of patients coming in can make it harder to serve those most in need, said Dr. Marc Larsen, an emergency physician at St. Luke’s.

Knowing when to go to the emergency room and when to seek another level of care can be a helpful tool if you’re looking for treatment for COVID-19 or other illnesses, and if you want to do what you can to help hospitals from getting overwhelmed.

First thing’s first: One of the first things people can do when trying to decide if they need to be treated by a doctor is to contact their primary care doctor.

“Emergency departments really should be reserved for more perceived life threatening events, sometimes that’s different based on the patient’s access to health care or where they’re living in the city,” Larsen said, who is also a part of St. Luke’s COVID-19 Response Team.

“So just limiting the less urgent patients that present to the emergency departments will help with the emergency department staff in general.”

When to go to the ER

For starters, severe pain is usually a clear sign that you might need to take a trip to the emergency room.

“If you’re having chest pain and you’re worried about having a heart attack or a stroke…you just got to get to the emergency room,” University of Kansas Health System Chief Medical Officer Steven Stites said in a briefing on Friday.

Symptoms that often require immediate attention according to Larsen include:

• Severe chest pain

• Shortness of breath

• Passing out episodes

• Major lacerations

• Broken bones

• Severe abdominal pain

• Swelling in the legs

When to go to Urgent Care

Those who are experiencing classic COVID-19 and respiratory symptoms like coughing, congestion, runny nose, sore throat and body aches should assume they have COVID-19, Larsen said.

Patients who are positive for COVID or presenting mild COVID-like symptoms should avoid the emergency room, especially since most hospitals are seeing such high volumes of patients due to the surge.

For those patients, Larsen recommends looking for an urgent care facility near you. Urgent care is also useful for sprains, colds and even the flu, according to Stites.

St. Luke’s Acute Care Clinic, for example, offers online visits and telehealth services.

“You can see a nurse practitioner on that online visit. They can diagnose you and work through your issues with you,” he said, adding that this kind of medical evaluation helps prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“It allows us to really prioritize the right patient, in the right place, at the right time.”

Other ways to get immediate help

For those without a primary care doctor or access to healthcare, 24-hour nurse hotlines can help answer important medical questions when trying to decide on next steps for care.

Almost all major hospitals in the Kansas City metro area provide the service for free to help patients make sense of their symptoms and create a plan of action.

“Don’t delay trying to get necessary care if you’re really injured or ill because that may make things harder,” Stites said.

“We may have folks in the bed in the hallways, but we’re going to take care of you.”

Do you have other questions about COVID-19 or seeking care in Kansas City? Ask us at kcq@kcstar.com or use the form below.