Louisville-area hospitals, urgent care centers plagued by long wait times

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Patients in the Louisville area are waiting hours to be seen by doctors at area urgent cares centers and hospitals -- and some are just giving up.

But if you plan ahead, there are some things you can do to save time.

Our viewers are quick to point out the long waits. In a Facebook post made just before 10 a.m. on Friday, we asked them to tell us how long they've waited to be seen by area doctors in recent days. That post garnered hundreds of comments from viewers, many of whom went to different locations, but shared the same experience: urgent cares these days aren't so urgent after all.

"We're seeing the results, really, of an immunity debt," said Dr. Emily Volk, chief medical officer of Baptist Health Floyd.

Doctors have said for months this would be a tough flu season, and now we are seeing the effects: long wait times at emergency rooms and urgent care centers virtually everywhere.

"We're all doing our very best to manage the patient needs and to deal with the sickest patients the best we can," Volk said.

In Jeffersonville, the Baptist Health ER and Urgent Care is seeing dozens of patients a day.

One mom says it took almost six hours for her 3-year-old son with flu symptoms to be seen on Thursday.

"They had people parked all around the building," said Maisie Peterson. "There was no parking."

"People would go outside to their car and wait instead of staying in the waiting room so the doctors and nurses were having to come out and, like, search for them."

There were also lengthy wait times at Clark Memorial Hospital.

"I had gone there because I couldn't hold down any food or drink," said Philip Sheckell.

Sheckell says he waited nearly 15 hours to be seen on Wednesday.

"There were people that were sleeping that, hadn't moved for hours," he said. "I wasn't even sure if they were still even functional because there was someone in a wheelchair that hadn't moved in close to 10 hours."

In Kentucky, another woman says her family member waited 23 hours in the emergency room at Norton Audubon Hospital last week.

Norton Urgent Care centers have also been seeing long lines, with patients reporting wait times anywhere from two hours in Westport Village, to four hours in Middletown, to nine hours on Dixie Highway.

To reduce your wait time at an urgent care center, your best bet is to try for a walk-in first thing in the morning.

Some Norton Healthcare locations are also allowing you to schedule an appointment ahead of time, and are publishing updated wait times throughout the day online.

For a list of estimated wait times at local health care locations, click here.

At UofL Health, emergency room wait times may vary, but patients can text "ERWAIT" to 511511 and receive a list of current wait times at seven different emergency rooms.

UofL Health, Norton Healthcare and Baptist Health also offer virtual appointments, and to help keep hospitals from getting overwhelmed with patients, doctors say you shouldn't visit an ER unless it truly is an emergency.

If you do stay home, doctors say to get plenty of rest and to stay hydrated.

They also say to be careful not to mix drugs that have the same active ingredients. For example, if you have a headache and are taking an over-the-counter cold medicine, most contain acetaminophen, which is the same thing you'd find in pain relievers and fever reducers like Advil or Tylenol.

Doctors also say you shouldn't combine cold or cough medicine with other prescription medications unless they say it is safe to do so. Additionally, you should avoid mixing medicine and alcohol, as that can make drowsiness even worse.