‘Tripledemic’ Causing Higher Volume of Patients in Emergency Rooms

Emergency departments are seeing an increase in patients with flu and RSV, according to Holy Cross Health Acute Care President Dr. Louis Damiano. 

And let’s not forget COVID. So we termed this the tripledemic, because of the three different upper respiratory tract environments,” Damiano said during a media briefing Wednesday. 

He said that in July and August, most upper respiratory tract infections were due to COVID-19, but that has changed. Now, about 50% of those visits at Silver Spring and Germantown locations are RSV or flu.

“The impact on the emergency room is that the volumes are higher, and as the volumes are higher and we try and see and triage the patients, it also results in longer wait times.”

‘Tripledemic’ Causing Higher Volume of Patients in Emergency Rooms - Montgomery Community Media (mymcmedia.org)