A Day Inside the ER During Omicron (with Megan Ranney)

In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt

Lemonada Media

News

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Andy and ER doctor Megan Ranney take you inside her Rhode Island emergency department to hear just how thinly stretched everyone and everything is during the Omicron wave. Nearly two years into this pandemic, we are all exhausted. But as you can hear in Megan's voice, the people who staff emergency departments have been pushed to their breaking point. Go with her on a recent shift as she treats patients, talks with her colleagues, and reflects on the toll that practicing emergency medicine during COVID has taken on all of them.

Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.

Follow Megan @meganranney on Twitter.

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Check out these resources from today’s episode:

Read more from Megan on what it’s like in the emergency department during Omicron: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/01/21/omicron-er-doctor-stress/
Check out this piece by Ed Yong, featuring Megan, about the toll Omicron is taking on hospitals, patients, and health care workers in America: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/omicron-mild-hospital-strain-health-care-workers/621193/
Learn more about BA. 2, a new version of the Omicron variant: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/24/covid-omicron-ba2/
Find a COVID-19 vaccine site near you: https://www.vaccines.gov/
Order Andy’s book, Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165

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For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com/show/inthebubble.

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Transcript

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0:49.2	I'm walking into my shift and signing in. There are fewer patients in the
1:02.6	waiting room than we've had in the last couple weeks. It's only a few dozen and
1:06.9	the wait's only about four hours to get seen. So it feels like this could be a
1:13.3	good day.
1:31.4	So welcome in the bubble. This is Andy Slavitt. I'm so proud of this episode. We're
1:36.9	gonna take you inside a hospital for a shift to see what umacran is like
1:41.2	inside the hospital. It's the one place we don't normally get to see what
1:44.4	goes on and a wonderful wonderful emergency room physician named Megan
1:49.2	Ranny has basically taking it since I had a full day shift and we'll learn a
1:54.8	lot about what's going on with umacran. But just as importantly we're also
1:58.5	learning what it's like for physicians and nurses in a really upfront
2:03.4	intimate way. As I say I'm really proud of this episode. I'm really proud of
2:07.3	of Megan for what she does and her generosity is so clear and putting it
	...

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