RSV, flu and short staffing create staggering waits at metro clinics, hospitals

[WCCO-TV News, November 18, 2022] If you're looking to visit a clinic, urgent care or hospital emergency room in the Twin Cities metro, you could find yourself waiting up to, or more than, three hours this weekend.

On Friday, wait times for Allina Health's Apple Valley clinic passed two and a half hours. Elsewhere, wait times were the same or even longer.

"It's just a lot of influx of patients right now," said Dr. Todd Smith, who works to oversee Allina Health's urgent care clinics. "You get things that often go to ERs that we're now seeing in urgent care, which might take a little longer to go and work up, adding to the problem."

Smith says at Twin Cities ERs wait times can be even worse.