HOUSTON – Doctors across the country are now seeing more patients who chose to avoid hospitals during the height of the infectious-disease. They say this is causing a backlog of patients, many of whom are showing more serious healthy-living due to the lack of care during that period.
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Doctors across the country are now seeing more patients who’d chosen to avoid hospitals during the pandemic.
(Houston Heart at HCA Houston Healthcare)
According to the American Heart Association, during the first year of the pandemic, the overall risk for dying from heart disease rose to just over 4%, and the risk of dying from a stroke also rose over 6%.
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Dr. T. Douglas Lawson, the president of the board for the American Heart Association’s Houston Division, said research showed this was a direct result of neglecting health care checkups during the pandemic. “People are coming in later for screening cancers, and those cancers are more advanced. People are coming in later for control of their blood pressure. And, that’s creating more advanced heart disease that we’re now working to correct.”
Encarnacion added that this game of “catch up” has been challenging the health care system. “Overall, I would say that with the amount of influx of patients back into the system, back into health care and the strained health care workforce, together is creating a little bit of a backlog.”
Doctors are connecting a backlog of patients to neglected checkups during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Hospitals across the country and medical organizations such as the American Heart Association have been working to clear this patient backlog and prevent it in the future.
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“We’ve had to work really hard to show people that hospitals and clinics are safe. That we’re there to help them, and we need people to continue to see their doctors,” Lawson said.
Doctors and the American Heart Association also reported that virtual doctor’s visits have helped clear this backlog. They recommend such visits to anyone who’s hesitant about visiting a hospital in person.
