Amid a "tripledemic" of respiratory illnesses, many urgent care centers have started requiring appointments and restricting visitors to mitigate long wait times and reduce the strain on facilities.

How urgent care facilities are responding to a surge of patients

In recent weeks, urgent care centers around the country have experienced a surge of patients with respiratory illnesses, including influenza, Covid-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). This has resulted in long wait times and placed a strain on facilities and workers.

UnityPoint Health clinics in central Iowa experienced as much as a 40% increase in patient volume over typical levels. The health system has implemented a new scheduling process, requiring all patients to make an appointment online instead of walking in.

According to Patricia Newland, a family medicine provider and CEO of UnityPoint Clinic, the goal of the new scheduling system is to cut wait times by regulating the flow of patients and to ensure "safe and efficient care."

"We don't want to have people sitting in a crowded room full of ill people," Newland said. "It just overwhelms our system."

Meanwhile, IU Health, Indiana's largest health system, on Monday started enforcing visitor restrictions, citing an increase in cases of influenza and other respiratory illnesses.

Under IU Health's new policy, only immediate family members are allowed to visit, with just two visitors at a time. Visits are not permitted if they are under age 18—unless they are parents or guardians—or if they have flu-like or Covid-19 symptoms. Notably, all Marion County hospitals have implemented similar measures.

"Flu is hitting Marion County hard right now and much earlier than it has in recent years," said Virginia Caine, director of the Marion County Public Health Department.

In Louisville, Kentucky, patients who visit urgent care facilities are reporting an hours-long wait to be seen by a doctor.

Last week, one woman said she waited nearly six hours for her three-year-old son with flu symptoms to be seen. "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," Peterson added.

At another Kentucky hospital, Philip Sheckell said he had to wait almost 15 hours to be seen. "I had gone there because I couldn't hold down any food or drink," he said. "There were people that were sleeping that, hadn't moved for hours," he recalled. "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."

"We're seeing the results, really, of an immunity debt," said Emily Volk, CMO of Baptist Health Floyd. "We're all doing our very best to manage the patient needs and to deal with the sickest patients the best we can," she added. (Ramm, Des Moines Register, 12/6; AP/Modern Healthcare, 12/6; Hayba, WDRB, 12/2)