Hospital sees record-breaking number of patients amid flu outbreak

Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula saw a record breaking number of patients in the Emergency Department this week, many with problems related to the flu outbreak.

Doctors say while the flu season started out slow at the beginning of December, it took hospitals by storm after Christmas.

“It’s been a particularly nasty flu season. We had a feeling about this when we saw what Australia was going through, they generally tend to get the flu a couple months before we do and they were having a pretty tough year and then it pretty much hit full force after Christmas,” says Dr. Bakhda with Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula.

Thursday they broke their record for patients. Dr. Bakhda says, “on a normal day in the emergency department we see about 150 patients a day or so and we broke the record this week and we saw 234.”

The wait time has gone up to 3 or 4 hours for patients with less severe symptoms. The department says at one time they had 71 patients in the department with only 30 rooms. To help see patients the Hospital brought in their mobile clinic for patients that need quick check-ups and are at lower risk.

Doctors want to remind people with less severe symptoms to save hospital rooms for those who need to be treated immediately. “If folks aren’t super sick, if they don’t have dangerous signs, we’d like them to consider going to urgent care or their doctors office or just take care of themselves at home with over the counter medicines,” says Dr. Bakhda.

Flu season usually ends after the Winter months, but doctors say it is not too late to get a flu vaccination now. While the vaccination is not perfect, doctors say it is still expected to help prevent the flu or the severity of the virus.