The festival was expanded from three to four days to mark its 25th anniversary. Although last year’s three-day festival accounted for 238 hospitalizations, compared to this year’s 268, the number of attendees sent to the hospital per day decreased this year.
Chicago-based Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center treated 16 festival attendees brought in from Grant Park, most with alcohol-related illnesses. A physician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago told the Chicago Tribune she treated mostly 15- and 16-year-olds for intoxication.
Lurie’s recently released a study showing the hospital sees a three-fold increase in emergency department visits during the festival, which is slated to be a four-day event next year as well.
More articles about patient flow:
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Texas hospital ends maternal delivery care
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