Mercy ER to no longer advise over the phone

Williston’s Mercy Medical Center emergency room is no longer providing medical advice to area residents over the telephone, as the ER staff must focus on a patient load that continues to grow.

This change took effect Friday afternoon and was the focus of a press release from Mercy marketing and communications manager Leslie Sullivan.

Sullivan said the phone calls to the ER for medical advice is a trend that has been growing.

“Probably even a couple of years, with our population growth,” she said.

The calls area residents are making in an effort to gain medical advice involve “anything under the sun,” Sullivan said, and aren’t just the result of increased concerns regarding this year’s flu season.

“They think they can get medical direction by calling, and they can’t,” Sullivan said of residents who have been calling. “It’s just becoming a bigger issue that we’re getting more and more calls like that.”

She said giving medical advice simply isn’t a service the medical facility can provide over the telephone.

“They do need to see a physician to seek medical advice and direction,” Sullivan said.

The increasing number of people visiting the Mercy ER is not due to any one particular medical situation, but is just a mix of patient needs, she said.

“Maybe if their symptoms have increased and they need to come and see a physician and it’s too late in the day to go to the clinic, or it’s a more emergent need,” Sullivan said in attempting to describe the patients who are contributing to the ER’s increasing load.

She said if someone has a medical condition that is of major concern and which cannot be addressed by his/her regular physician, the person should simply go directly to the Mercy ER.

“We know we’re going into a busy season,” she said. “We’re incredibly busy in the ER.”