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NC hospitals prepare for potential holiday surge

Cone Health has seen an uptick in patients since the Thanksgiving holiday.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Hospitals in our area are feeling the pressure as they care for patients with Covid, Flu and RSV

Dr. Cynthia Snider with cone health says right now flu is really spreading. 

"We're still seeing a trend up over the last four or five days we're seeing more influenza admissions and people showing up for testing," Snider said. 

She says about half of the kids that get tested are positive for the flu and 30 percent of adults test positive. Even with more patients, Dr. Snider says they are prepared. 

"So we're making big efforts on our ambulatory side so that we can address the needs of patients that don't necessarily meet the criteria to me admitted," Snider said. 

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Charlotte is working to tackle the increase too.

The hospital will deploy its mobile emergency department or med-1 to provide more bed space for less critical patients. 

"We wanna make sure that we're fully capable of caring for patients both that might be trauma related but also for our full community. So you know we serve as an emergency department across the community and so we're taking steps to make sure that we're fully prepared for any patient surge that we might face," Chan Rouch with Carolinas Medical Center said. 

While the mobile unit is just in Charlotte, its just one way the system is preparing for more patients. 

"We have been thinking about extra staffing. We've been working with our physicians and our advance care practitioners to adjust their schedules so they can care for more patients, and we've also been working with our pediatricians an our urgent cares to have more access in our communities," Callie Dobbins with Levine Children's Hospital said. 

Dr. Snider urges anyone sick with Covid, Flu or RSV to go to Urgent Care or their family doctor instead of going to the emergency room. That way they can save beds for sicker patients. 

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