Winter weather spurs crowded hospital waiting rooms across Triangle

Winter weather always keeps hospital emergency rooms busier than normal, but the recent winter weather storm that dumped up to a foot of snow on the Triangle prompted many urgent care providers to close their doors or curtail their operating hours.

Posted 11:05 p.m. Jan 19, 2018 — Updated 11:19 p.m. Jan 19, 2018

RALEIGH, N.C. — Winter weather always keeps hospital emergency rooms busier than normal, but the recent winter storm that dumped up to a foot of snow on the Triangle prompted many urgent care providers to close their doors or curtail their operating hours.

Many doctors, including Dr. Allen Mask, have been fielding several calls about medical problems that are urgent but not emergencies. Mask says one patient was in pain from gout, while another patient called to complain about a severe migraine headache. Another person called to complain about complication from a kidney stone.

Officials at WakeMed's countywide system of emergency departments said they have been very busy with many snow-related injuries.

Officials at the health care provider said they have treated 70 people who had weather-related injuries from early Wednesday morning, when the first flakes started falling, until late Wednesday afternoon, when the snowfall ended.

The breakdown:

30 due to slips and falls (three of those were children)
22 injuries from motor vehicles that were linked to the weather
11 sledding injuries (six of them were children)
2 snowboarding injuries (1 was a child)
4 chest pain complaints due to exertion from shoveling snow
1 patient complained of a severe asthma flare up

The rush on hospitals comes as medical officials continue to grapple with one of the worst flu seasons in recent memory.

Mask said that, if prescribed within two days of the onset of symptoms, antiviral medications can lessen the severity and duration of the flu. But there have been reports of a shortage of those medications.

"I do have a physician brother who's down in Lafayette, Louisiana," Mask said. "Apparently, they've had a terrible problem there with a lack of access to Tamiflu, but in this area, we have not heard any complaints from our particular patients."

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