Urgent care clinics fill up as COVID-19 surge strains hospitals
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH-TV) — Multiple urgent care clinics on Wednesday said more patients are turning to them as hospitals fill up.
TaQuita Taylor, a family nurse practitioner who owns Children Express Care Clinic on the northeast side, says she’s seeing about 50% more patients now than she did two weeks ago. She says many of those patients tell her they came to her because they saw the hospitals were filling up with COVID patients and feared they couldn’t get in for other procedures.
Taylor says most of their ailments turn out to be something she can treat anyway.
“I would say 90% of our patients, we can handle what they present with as far as symptoms,” she said.
As of Tuesday — the most recent day for which data is available — just under 3,000 Hoosiers were in the hospital with COVID-19, nearly double the number from a month earlier and close to the record of 3,460 set on Nov. 30, 2020.
Hospitals have become so strained, they have asked for and received assistance from the National Guard and from active-duty military medical teams. This is causing ripple effects throughout the health care system.
- National Guard troops deployed to St. Vincent hospital due to increased COVID-19 cases
- IU Health requests help from National Guard, says demand and strain ‘has never been greater’
- US Navy team deployed to Indiana to support IU Health
- Navy team to assist IU Health Methodist Hospital ‘in areas of greatest need’
Community Health Network says its MedCheck urgent care clinics could see triple their normal volumes, due in large part to people seeking COVID tests. Community Health spokesperson Kris Kirschner says people seeking urgent care services should utilize telehealth services if possible. She says COVID are available tests through primary care physicians. At-home tests are a reliable option as well.
Taylor says about a quarter of the patients she is seeing are coming in for COVID tests. So far, she says she has enough staff and equipment to handle the extra demand. She says those who can’t get into an ER or major urgent care clinic should do some research and see what else is available.
“Before you go to an urgent care clinic, call to know our procedures as far as COVID testing, whether you need to wait in the car or if you can walk in,” she said.
Taylor says the best way to help take pressure off health care providers such as her is to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Even if someone still gets sick, she says it can drastically reduce their chances of needing hospitalization. Almost all COVID patients in Indiana hospitals are unvaccinated.