(WWJ) — There’s an increasing number of Michiganders coming down with the flu, and Corewell Health officials say that’s been causing backups in emergency rooms across the state.
Corewell leaders on Thursday expressed concerns that too many people are visiting hospital emergency rooms as their "first resort" for care. Dr. Charles Gibson, Chief Medical Officer at Corewell, said there have been ER delays during what he described as a “reasonably bad” flu season.
Gibson said influenza is up to 25-30% positivity, meaning out of every 10 people who get tested, two to three of them are positive and are admitted to the hospital.
But Dr. Matthew Sims, Director of Infectious Disease Research at Corewell Health, said it becomes a problem when people “use the ER” as their primary care or as an urgent care, as opposed to for true emergencies.
“The best thing is try to make sure that your symptoms match your settings so that you go to the right place so that you don’t have to wait if you’re not that ill to require an emergency department,” Gibson said Thursday. “It would be better for you to check in with your (primary care provider) or an urgent care before considering. We even offer virtual care at Corewell Health to kind of meet you where you’re at.”
Gibson said while many think it’s too late to get a flu shot, it’s still worth doing so.
“It’s absolutely not too late to get vaccinated,” he said. “The flu season usually lasts through May. Even in the bad matches when it’s only a 25% match, it still gives you much greater protection than that.”
“What that means is you may get flu, but you’re probably not gonna need to be in the hospital, you’re probably not gonna need to be on a ventilator. It protects people and that’s been shown season after season after season,” Gibson said.
As for COVID cases, Sims says they remain steady at about 5% of patients being seen. When it comes to RSV, he said cases are down to about 3-4% on the east side of the state, though it remains at about 10% on the west side.