Office of Primary Care and Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program

Stephen Leffler, M.D., professor of emergency medicine and president and chief operating officer of the University of Vermont Medical Center

(OCTOBER 19, 2022) Stephen Leffler, M.D., professor of emergency medicine and president and chief operating officer of the University of Vermont Medical Center, was interviewed by VT Digger about overcrowding in the hospital’s Emergency Department.

UVMMC recently advised people with relatively minor issues to seek treatment at doctor’s offices or urgent care centers rather than visit the hospital’s overcrowded emergency room. Leffler and other hospital officials across the state say they’ve faced a longer trend of overcrowding in emergency departments—and even inpatient care generally—in recent months, on top of the strain hospitals have experienced since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. The number of patients in hospitals who are waiting to be discharged to subacute beds, such as long-term care or rehab centers, has increased, meaning that there are fewer beds for new patients coming in; in addition, there are about 32 patients each week seeking mental health treatment that can’t get into an inpatient psychiatric facility, according to data from the Agency of Human Services.

“We are doing our very best to accept everyone we possibly can,” Leffler said. “But when our ER is completely full, that also is more difficult. We still always take people with acute emergencies, like traumas or heart attacks or strokes, but it may make us delay taking someone with a less urgent problem.”