Hospital emergency departments working overtime to keep up with patients Tim Gordon Replay Video UP NEXT Hospital emergency departments in Oregon have been overloaded with patients since spring and hit a high point last week. At PeaceHealth Southwest Washington Medical Center, it's slowly starting to improve, but emergency rooms are still busy. "We’re still quite crowded in the hospital and my understanding is a lot of the hospitals in the area are still quite crowded, but doing better than we were last week for sure,” said Dr. Jason Hanley, medical director of the hospital's emergency department. Dr. Hanley said he sees a few reasons for the crowds.