Local health care providers are seeing a slight jump in patient numbers after a week of wintry weather that plagued the area, keeping many patients and doctors alike at home.
Doctors' offices noted an increase in traffic Monday as more patients were able to get out of the house and into their offices, following the melting of ice and snow in the area.
"We have been pretty swamped, phones ringing off the wall … it's been kind of crazy," said Christy Bland, office manager of Family Healthcare in Denton.
Bland said the office hasn't seen many fall-related injuries from the ice, but saw lots of flu and cold cases.
Vicki Johnston, director of development with CareNow, said the Denton office has seen a lot of flu cases as well.
"A few work-related ice injuries, domestic injuries, and [we've] seen people trickle in who had been injured last week but were not able to get out and see anyone, or who thought they were better but were not," she said.
Local emergency rooms saw an increase in their patient load from the ice and snow and from private physicians offices' being closed due to the weather.
Scott Domingue, director of emergency services at Denton Regional Medical Center, reported seeing 50 cases in three days late last week related to falls. The total number of patients doubled the typical trauma volume, he said.
Elizabeth Long, a spokeswoman for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Denton, said the numbers there haven't been too far out of the ordinary.
Of the four days of the storm, Friday was the busiest with a lot of slips, falls, dislocated shoulders, broken ankles and wrist sprains, she said. Doctors also treated burn cases from residents trying to relight furnaces.
Long said the new snow gave some people a false confidence, thinking it would give them better traction for driving or walking, which often wasn't the case.
For some care providers, patient numbers stayed relatively the same.
Rick Calhoun, a nurse practitioner with Calhoun Family Medicine in Sanger, said the office has seen some increase in the number of patients, but some of the illnesses have been more severe because people had to wait most of the week to get an appointment.
"They were willing to travel but we couldn't get in - just too dangerous to get people out," he said.
Martha Ceja with Dr. Jose Ceja's practice in Denton said it was a typical Monday for her office, attributing it to the higher volume for local emergency rooms. The office was swamped before the storm, but with upper-respiratory cases.
"This time of the year is busy anyway with flu; that's what we're seeing right now," she said.
BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is blewis@dentonrc.com .
