ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The large number of COVID-19 patients being seen in Central Florida emergency rooms is causing other patients to wait up to six hours to be seen.
What You Need To Know
- The recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Central Florida has left hospitals scrambling
- Numerous people say they have waited up to six hours to be seen in the emergency room because of the overload
- People need non-emergency surgeries are being told to wait at AdventHealth because the hospital is in Code Black status
Numerous people say they have experienced long emergency room wait times, or were eventually turned away without being seen.
Tim Evanicki said when he visited AdventHealth’s emergency room in July, it was no time at all before he was treated.
“I came to the ER with incredible stomach pain, I was seen in less than an hour,” he said.
He learned during that visit that he had kidney stones.
After following up with his urologist, he found out surgery would have to wait due to the overwhelming number of COVID-19 that had caused AdventHealth to enter Code Black status and postpone all non-emergency surgeries.
A week later though, the excruciating pain forced him back to the ER, but this time Evanicki had a much different experience.
“We got there at 6 o’clock, I wasn’t seen until midnight, so we were there for six hours,” he said.
He was admitted to the hospital only to be sent home the next morning because he was told he was still unable to get the surgery because of the hospital's Code Black status.
But he’s far from the only person to run into long emergency room wait times.
“This experience was really, really bad,” said Evelyn Lopez.
She went to the ER in AdventHealth Kissimmee last week after she experienced serious nosebleeds and migraines.
She waited five hours to be seen, only to be told by a nurse that: “You’re not an emergency, COVID and chest pain patients are being taken in first."
She said even patients who tested positive were being told they would have to wait 12 hours to get a bed.
Meanwhile, having to wait hours in a room crowded with COVID-positive patients made her really uncomfortable.
“I can’t believe we’re all stuck here together, it was really, really horrible,” Lopez said.
Hospitals officials say the majority of COVID cases in their beds are people who are unvaccinated.
Both Evanicki and Lopez hope their experiences in the ER show just how important it is to get the shot.
“People have to take this serious,” Lopez said.
“Until we get enough people vaccinated it’s just going to continue to go on,” Evanicki said.
Spectrum News also heard about similar wait times at hospitals like Orlando Health and Rockledge Regional.