Hospitals' COVID crush means longer waits when ill, after an accident

Faye Buchanan burned her hand trying to extinguish a kitchen fire and sought treatment at two urgent care locations, but doctors there, worried she had inhaled smoke, sent her to the ER. She ended up waiting hours - in a lobby and eventually a hallway - at UNC REX Hospital.

Posted 3:17 p.m. Sep 9, 2021 — Updated 9:44 p.m. Sep 9, 2021

Amanda Lamb

, WRAL reporter

The COVID-19 surge in North Carolina isn't just affecting the patients and the families, but it’s affecting people with other illnesses and injuries seeking treatment.

With hospital emergency departments packed with COVID-19 patients, Faye Buchanan told WRAL News she thought she could get a burn treated at urgent care.

"Nobody wants to go to the emergency room now," she said.

Buchanan burned her hand trying to extinguish a kitchen fire and sought treatment at two urgent care locations, but doctors there, worried she had inhaled smoke, sent her to the ER. She ended up waiting hours – in a lobby and eventually a hallway – at UNC REX Hospital.

Faye Buchanan burned her hand trying to extinguish a kitchen fire and sought treatment at two urgent care locations, but doctors there, worried she had inhaled smoke, sent her to the ER. She ended up waiting hours - in a lobby and eventually a hallway - at UNC REX Hospital.

"What are you supposed to do? I mean, we've got a pandemic," she said. "And then you've got regular accidents going on and regular sickness, you know. That's not taken a vacation by any means. So you're double-whammied at the hospital, and I'm sure they're short-staffed like anybody else."

Hospital administrators tell WRAL News that the wait can be anywhere from 5 to 15 hours for those who don’t have a life-threatening emergency.

Buchanan said she understood the challenges the hospital faces but worries for others in a similar situation.

"If we don't get this under control, we're going to be in a situation where people who need emergency care might not be able to get it," she said.

As COVID-19 hospitalizations climb toward a pandemic peak, health care leaders across the Triangle have echoed that same warning.

Beds in lobby, mobile morgues: Hospitals take drastic steps amid flood of COVID-19 patients

On Thursday, there were 3,815 people being treated for COVID in North Carolina hospitals, according to state data.

"COVID is definitely placing an additional strain on our normal patient volumes," said Rowell Daniels, chief operating officer of UNC Medical Center. "And, obviously, a lot of this strain is due to the lack of vaccinations in our community."

'A lot of death around here,' nurse says of working in ICU filled with COVID patients

Daniels noted that 85% of COVID-19 patients at UNC Hospitals have not been vaccinated, 93% of those in the ICU with COVID are unvaccinated, and all of the recent COVID deaths at the hospital have been people who were not vaccinated.

At UNC Health Southeastern in Lumberton, Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive Renae Taylor said 60 patients were being treated for COVID-19.

"The majority of them have not been vaccinated. So from where I sit as an executive leader, it's a little frustrating to think that maybe they could have been prevented if they had gotten the vaccine," she said. "We want people to get the vaccine, because that is testing our organization."