Please visit our COVID-19 resource and information page for primarily North Carolina and NCDHHS resources and information. Please visit ACEP’s COVID-19 resource page for national/CDC news and updates.
Learn MoreHope that is shared grows.
In that light, I am sharing with you my hope for healing of our emergency medicine physician community as we begin to emerge from the COVID pandemic. At each of our facilities, I hope that our patients feel safe to return to our departments to seek needed emergency care. At the North Carolina General Assembly, I hope that patient safety is paramount in guiding decisions regarding COVID and scope of practice legislation. In Washington DC, I hope that attention to families’ finances and the value of physician-led care guide rulemaking associated with the No Surprises Act.
Across our nation, emergency department visits declined over 40% during April 2020 and remained down nearly 25% throughout the close of 2020. However, across our state our patients appear to be returning to the emergency departments for emergency care with Charlotte and the Triangle emergency departments seeing June visit numbers equal to or above those in 2019. In contrast, our state’s more rural emergency departments continue to see volumes that remain 10-20% below their 2019 levels.
