Emergency room wait times at Massachusetts hospitals are skyrocketing under the pressure of staffing shortages, delays in care and upticks in cases of flu, coronavirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Local doctors joined Greater Boston and said they expect the situation will only worsen as we head into the winter months.
Dr. Laura Burke, attending physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said hospital crowding and lack of staffing is affecting hospitals across the nation despite decades-long warnings from leaders in the field.
"We still want people to come in and we will do our best to get them seen and get them the care they need, it's just heartbreaking to have to deal with crowding and have to work in these suboptimal conditions," Burke said.
Some patients end up leaving the emergency department without getting care because they've been waiting so long.
State Representative Dr. John Santiago, who is also an emergency physician at Boston Medical Center, said that can lead to severe negative health consequences.
Dr. Michael VanRooyen, chief of enterprise emergency medicine at Mass General Brigham, said there are patients waiting in hallways, sitting areas and every other place imaginable.
"As a provider, I'd far rather have that, however challenging it is, than not know those patients that are coming in and leaving without being seen," VanRooyen said.
VanRooyen said hospitals are so full and labor shortages so severe that he doesn't anticipate the situation getting any better anytime soon. "We need to come up with available solutions to mitigate this issue," he warned.
Watch: Massachusetts doctors worry long ER wait times will only get worse in winter months
