Falls Remain Leading Cause of Trauma Visits

Buffalo Business First reported that Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) was seeing a major rebound in emergency department visits. This comes after a large decrease in patient volumes throughout the spring due to the COVID pandemic.

ECMC CEO Thomas J. Quatroche Jr., PhD said the hospital has been “unbelievably busy” this summer and shared some thoughts on why he believed ER volumes rose.

“When the weather is nice, people are out more, maybe doing work outside their house or maybe they’re outside and fall off a step…The No. 1 mechanism for us is falls: falls off ladders and low-level falls.” - Thomas J. Quatroche Jr., CEO of ECMC

For the July to August period the emergency department had 839 calls vs. 779 last year (trauma admissions were 760 vs. 712). However, that increase was not enough to offset the impact of COVID on overall trauma cases at ECMC. Year to date, ECMC reported a total of 1,837 trauma cases, which is down from 2,336 in 2019. Falls continue to be leading cause of trauma cases and represent about 40% of total cases this year.

Please be safe and remember to always ensure you and your loved ones minimize risks related to falling hard or awkwardly.

We hope you enjoy these last days of summer!

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