An Associated Press and Side Effects Public Media data analysis shows one in six visits to the emergency department in 2022 that resulted in hospital admission had a wait of four or more hours.

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)A fast-rising rising tide of new coronavirus cases is flooding emergency rooms in parts of the United States, with some patients moved into hallways and nurses working extra shifts to keep up with the surge. Ive never seen anything like this COVID surge, said Haddock, who has worked in emergency rooms since 2007. It's difficult to get a complete picture of how U.S. emergency rooms are faring. Dr. Robert Hancock, who works at multiple hospitals in Texas and Oklahoma and serves as president of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians, said some Texas emergency rooms are facing backups of patients awaiting ICU beds. Emergency rooms doctors and nurses were caught off guard by the relentless stream of severely sick patients during shifts that often lasted 12 hours, said Dr. Bernard P. Chang of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.