Posted on 11/05/25
| News Source: WBAL
Baltimore, MD - Nov. 5, 2025 - If you or someone you know is sick, you’re not alone. ‘Tis the season, but hospitals across Baltimore are packed even though respiratory illnesses remain relatively low.
Dr. Sharon Swencki is an emergency medicine physician at MedStar Health. She said the late-summer COVID rise has tapered off, and they are not seeing a spike in respiratory illnesses, but the emergency rooms have been full.
“It’s a trickle-down effect,” Swencki said. “When the hospitals are full, then the ERs are full, and then we can’t get patients through the ER and upstairs.”
When emergency rooms are filled, hospitals cannot accept new patients. Swencki said Union Memorial Hospital and many others across Baltimore have had to divert patients to other hospitals.
“So, going into the flu season, we’re really worried that if we start to see an influx of patients, especially patients with severe respiratory illness, that the hospitals are already so full, where are we going to put these patients?” Swencki said. “What are we going to do if we just don’t have the beds?”
Swencki believes more people are turning to the emergency rooms because of long waits for primary care and specialist appointments. Swencki said most illnesses can be treated at home.
“The same thing that we would do here is give you some Tylenol, give you some Motrin for a fever, for aches and pains, push fluids,” Swencki said. “There’s not really much that we’re going to do that’s different from what you can do at home.”