The emergency room at Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, Calif., had several days where patient occupancy exceeded 100 percent this week after seeing a spike in patients with flu symptoms and respiratory problems, according to a KMPH report.
"[The flu season] has caused us to see record numbers of patients through our emergency department over the past few days and it's also resulted in a number of admissions," W. Eugene Egerton, MD, CMO of Saint Agnes, told KMPH.
As the ER intake stretches beyond capacity, the hospital has a process to determine medical priority.
"We are trying to process patients at the best of our ability to make sure the sickest patients are processed in an expeditious fashion," Dr. Egerton said.
One Saint Agnes patient claimed his wife waited in the ER for 14 hours before seeing a physician.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:18 a.m. CST Jan. 11. A previous version of this story misstated that Saint Agnes Medical Center opened an overflow tent to accomodate patients.