Please know that we’re working hard to address these capacity issues. Providing you and your family the high-quality care you need, when you need it most, is our highest priority.
Joanne M. Conroy, MDAs respiratory virus season rages, simultaneously with a nationwide shortage of healthcare workers, tertiary hospitals, which care for the sickest patients, across the region and country are reaching patient capacity in their emergency departments (ED). Similar to other Level 1 trauma centers in New England, Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) is no exception, seeing ED overcrowding for the last several weeks.
Dartmouth Health CEO and president Joanne M. Conroy, MD, recently recorded a video message addressing DHMC’s capacity concerns. While ED staff will continue to prioritize patients who are most urgently in need of care—such as people experiencing a heart attack or stroke, or who are critically injured—Conroy said that patients with less pressing healthcare concerns coming to the DHMC ED should expect extended wait times.
“If you must be admitted to the hospital, there are waits, sometimes for up to 24 hours, for inpatient beds,” Conroy said. “I understand—and everyone who is working hard to care for you understands—that these wait times are very frustrating. Please know that we’re working hard to address these capacity issues. Providing you and your family the high-quality care you need, when you need it most, is our highest priority.”
If you are experiencing a medical emergency, do not hesitate to call 911 or go to your nearest ED. If you are uncertain whether you are experiencing a medical emergency, the DHMC ED is open 24/7 and medical screening exams are available for anyone who arrives at our ED.
Assignment Editor’s Note: The video linked in this news release is cleared for use on all digital and broadcast media platforms, with credit to Dartmouth Health. A downloadable version is available via Dropbox upon request.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.