Metro emergency rooms are packed and wait times are hours long

Local emergency rooms are overwhelmed with patients this summer, with wait times that can be hours long.Jackie Wellman and her husband, who injured his arm and had a reaction to antibiotics, are the latest metro patients to find out emergency room waiting times are growing hour by hour."They told him it would be a three-hour wait, and he couldn't do it. He felt really bad. It's very frustrating because he really needed care," Wellman said."Our emergency rooms are very busy. Our wait times are long, unfortunately," Dr. Tim McCoy at MercyOne said."I have seen high numbers daily. More than we have seen in a couple years," UnityPoint emergency room director Kristy Foote said.Both UnityPoint and MercyOne medical centers are seeing the number of emergency room visits skyrocket this summer. MercyOne says a nursing shortage is a big part of the problem."If you can’t have patients taken out of your ER to go to the hospital for a bed because there's not enough nurses to take care of them, a lot of it is a nursing shortage," McCoy said.UnityPoint says they have the staff, but they don't have the rooms for so many more visitors."It's frustrating for us as nurses, providers and staff that we can't get to all of our patients on time, and we have to have them wait," Foote said.Experts say many patients can skip the emergency room if their medical issues are not truly life-threatening. They recommend seeing a primary care doctor or visiting an urgent care clinic and avoid long wait times."If you can get to see a provider that you have that you trust that you can get to first, you may not need the emergency room," McCoy said.If you have no choice, head to the emergency room. But don't be in a hurry."You might have to wait. And just give that grace that we really do want to take care of them, and we want to get them seen by a provider, and we will do everything we can," Foote said.Emergency room experts say heart attacks, strokes, bleeding, and major traumas get priority. Other emergencies may require a longer wait time.