A rise in patients awaiting long-term care beds is crowding Vermont’s ERs

On Friday, the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington issued a warning to Vermonters: Don’t visit our emergency department if you can avoid it.

Instead, it 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.

Stephen Leffler, president of the medical center, said the overcrowding was caused by a “perfect storm” of several health care trends condensed into a single day: More than 100 patients sought care on Friday, but the facility had only 53 staffed beds.

“​​It's back to normal-busy now and we're managing OK, but Friday was particularly stressful and difficult,” he said on Tuesday.