Study of hospital alerts suggests busier ER crowds in Maryland

Across the state of Maryland, hospital emergency rooms appear to be experiencing overcrowding issues.

That’s according to the Maryland Institute Emergency Medical Systems. They analyze yellow alerts, which indicate that the hospital is requesting patients to go elsewhere, and red alerts, which means there are no monitored beds.

47 ABC reached out to PRMC about the numbers. They say they have seen a four-percent increase in volume over the past year and have had patients coming in after other hospitals issued the alerts. However, they have not used an alert themselves in at least two years.

Officials believe this year’s flu season contributed to the increase.