Tulsa ER Physician Talks About Post-Holiday Illnesses, Impact On Hospitals

Emergency rooms around the country are seeing a slight decline in post-holiday illnesses. But there are still some viruses going around making people sick.

Dr. Jeff Johnson is an emergency room physician for Hillcrest. He joined us to talk more about what they're seeing right now.

What are you seeing the emergency rooms?

"I think immediately after Christmas, we saw visits in the ER just, you know, really increase with people coming in with viral illnesses. You know, cough, cold nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fevers. And I just think, yeah, we were all together. And it was great. But we were passing those germs around for the next little bit. And so yeah, people are coming in sick and not feeling well, and just a whole assortment of symptoms and viral illnesses," Dr. Johnson said.

How did the "triple-demic" with flu, COVID, and RSV impact hospitals?

"We were you know, overloaded with patients related to that, especially pediatric patients. The state was really overwhelmed with the kind of the RSV surge that we had. So yeah, all of those things kind of at the same time really put a burden on the health care system," Dr. Johnson said.

Hillcrest and the Tulsa Health Department just launched the annual "Don't Bug Me" campaign, which is great timing given we're seeing some sickness.

What is the Don't Bug Me campaign's mission?

"So Hillcrest and the Tulsa Health Department have partnered with this campaign for years. Most people have seen the commercials around or the videos. So it's just a great partnership. We're really happy about it. It just promotes you know, flu shots, healthy behaviors to prevent you from getting the flu, and just kind of raises awareness for that," Dr. Johnson said.