There's increased concern from doctors and nurses as Memorial Hospital is over capacity and coronavirus cases aren't slowing down.
Indiana's coronavirus dashboard is showing the most positive cases across the state since last winter.
Dr. Dale Patterson, Memorial Hospital's Vice President of Medical Affairs, said the most coronavirus patients northern Indiana hospitals have seen at once is about 350.
Right now, the region has about 330 coronavirus patients.
But this time, there's a wider range of patients coming in with fewer healthcare workers to take care of them.
"People are out and people are coming in in car accidents, people are having gunshot wounds, things that have returned to a normal society that weren't happening last November," said Dr. Patterson.
"So the burden of other patients on the emergency room and the ability to take care of everyone who presents is even harder than it was last November."
Memorial Hospital is cancelling elective surgeries on a day-by-day basis -- including cancer and heart surgeries -- if more help is needed in the emergency room.
Being at 125% capacity, some patients may be forced to wait in a hospital hallway and beds are being set up in different parts of the building.
Memorial Emergency Room Physician Dr. Donald Zimmer said the hospital is underwater at the moment and worries about meeting the needs of the patients.
"I used to look forward to work every day and now i have a sense of dread. I worry what the situation is going to be like when I come in to the hospital," Dr. Zimmer said.
Nurse Julie Miller said it seems like everyone thinks coronavirus is gone because mitigation strategies have been abandoned.
Hospital staff are still mentally and physically exhausted from the first coronavirus surge and she said they're feeling defeated going into the next spike.
"My nurses are running on empty tanks, we're breaking down, we're tired of the body bags. We're tired of the low oxygen alarms. We're tired of the transports to the ICU where we know we'll never see that patient again," said Miller.
"We're tired of the double digit numbers in the ER and patients waiting for beds, regardless of if they have COVID or not."
Of the patients at Memorial Hospital, they said majority of coronavirus patients haven't gotten the vaccine.
If you want to help the situation at the hospitals, they said to get vaccinated and boosted at least six months after the final dose, while masking and following other mitigation strategies.
They also said that people should avoid the emergency room unless it's a dire emergency.
"We're all doing the best that we can and everybody's been working as hard as they possibly can," Dr. Zimmer said.
"But it feels like we've been in that mode for the last year and a half and I think what's hardest about this right now is that this phase feels like it's preventable."
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