Intensive care units are full and regular hospital floors are “bursting at the seams” as people stream into emergency departments.  But not all cases that arrive are true emergencies.  Center Director Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, who helped write Colorado's crisis standards of care said, “What’s changed is EMS can now come and say, ‘You know, we’d normally bring you into the emergency department, but you don’t meet the criteria given the current surge.'  Patients with less-urgent needs may be taken to urgent-care centers and other alternative sites when appropriate, according to the guidelines."
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