Saturday, October 24, 2009

Doctor Visits Surge With Flu

By Rosalie Rayburn
Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
          Major health care providers for Rio Rancho and the West Side are seeing a spike in calls and visits related to the H1N1 flu.
        The number of phone calls tripled at the Presbyterian primary care clinic, 4005 High Resort, when reports of flu cases began to surge.
        On a typical Monday, the clinic receives 1,200 phone calls. On Oct. 5, that number jumped to 3,600, Presbyterian spokeswoman Elizabeth Brophy said.
        Since then, Presbyterian has introduced a nurse triage line. People calling Presbyterian's primary care clinic number, 462-6000, can be connected to a nurse who will discuss symptoms and, if necessary, recommend a doctor visit, Brophy said.
        And Lovelace Westside Hospital at Golf Course and McMahon has seen the number of patients who visit its emergency room jump this month from an average of about 60 per day to between 80 and 100.
        At the same time, the average number of hospitalized patients increased to 22 per day, compared to an average of 15 in 2008, Lovelace spokeswoman Debra Hammer said.
        She attributes the increase to flu cases and flu-related illnesses.
        Both health-care organizations say they have limited amounts of the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccine. They are restricting H1N1 distribution to high-risk groups such as pregnant women, young children, health care workers and people with chronic illnesses.
        For example, Presbyterian last week gave doses of the nasal spray type H1N1 vaccine to 117 children in Rio Rancho between 2 and 4 years old.
        The surge in visits has caused frustration for local residents.
        Rio Rancho resident Loan Garcia said her young daughter was experiencing flu-like symptoms earlier this month. Her husband took the child to the Presbyterian emergency room, but he gave up after waiting for more than four hours. The child eventually recovered.
        She has been calling her regular primary care physician weekly to get flu vaccine for her children and was told this week that they could receive them next week.
       

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