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Central Iowa Hospital Emergency Room Wait Times Rising

Sliding doors of emergency room in hospital

Photo: Getty Images

(Des Moines, IA) -- Mercy One and Unity Point Health in Des Moines are both reporting longer than normal wait times in the emergency room and at walk-in and urgent care clinics. Both health care systems cite similar factors, including increased demand for coronavirus testing and staffing issues. Polk County Health Spokesperson Nola Aigner is reminding patients who do not have coronavirus symptoms, but still wish to be tested, to use a home-test kit, rather than go to an emergency room, walk-in clinic, or urgent care clinic. Polk County has noted a rise in coronavirus cases lately, the positivity rate is over 28-percent. Aigner says that percentage only includes lab-confirmed tests, not home-tests. Aigner also says coronavirus hospitalizations are also higher than they have been.

"MercyOne urgent care and emergency department locations are caring for an extremely high number of patients. We are urging all MercyOne primary care and pediatric care locations to treat and assess COVID-19 symptomatic patients via telehealth resources or within the clinic to avoid directing additional patients to overflowing urgent and emergency care sites. Minimizing the spread of illness is crucial. Please follow safe health practices to relieve stress on your health care system. Stay home if you are sick and do not spread illness. Wear a mask, even if you are vaccinated. If you are showing symptoms, take an at-home test to determine if you are infected. Consider making a telehealth appointment and call ahead before visiting a medical office.

It is very important for everyone to be up-to-date on vaccinations, including getting a booster if eligible."- MercyOne

Unity Point Health-Des Moines also says the emergency room median wait time has nearly doubled in the past eight months. A spokesperson for Unity Point-Des Moines says since august the median wait time has been 3-4 hours but can spike over 10 hours at times.  


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