The Nebraska Medical Center and Bellevue Medical Center say they're experiencing large volumes of patients, and that is impacting wait times in their emergency rooms.
Dr. Harris Frankel, Nebraska Medicine's chief medical officer, said Thursday there are multiple factors leading to the increase in patients.
“Our hospital is at capacity. There are workforce shortages in the post acute facility," Dr. Frankel said. "There are certain conditions that these post acute facilities tend not to accept because they don’t have the expertise to care for those conditions. There are guardianship issues at times.”
Dr. Frankel said he wants Nebraskans to know they should still come to the emergency room if they are having a medical emergency, even though they may be waiting longer.
“Our doors are open, as I said. Our care team is committed to taking care of you 24/7," he said. "If, however, there is the opportunity to seek care at an alternative site where your symptoms or condition can be appropriately cared for, we would encourage that."
Nebraska Medicine encourages those seeking non-emergency care to seek aid from someplace other than an ER, if possible.