Where there once was an emergency room sign, there's now an empty hole.
As the windows get boarded up at the old St. Mary's site in North Knoxville, the signs of a hospital are scraped away.
Tennova closed the Physicians Regional Medical Center at the end of last year. The closure is putting pressure on other hospitals still open as flu season gets underway.
RELATED: Physicians Regional & Lakeway Regional no longer taking admissions as hospitals prep to close
"People can expect waits," Dr. Martha Buchanan, the director of the Knox County Health Department, said. "This time of year they have waits all the time in the emergency room. They can expect them to be a little longer with Physicians Regional closing."
Over the holiday weekend, UT Medical Center said it saw a "high volume" of patients and Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center said it saw an increase of 30 people in the ER.
Both say it's too soon to attribute the spike to Tennova's closure of Physicians Regional. This time of year is already a busy one for hospitals.
"It's not just flu, we see everything go up," Buchanan said.
That means more visits to emergency rooms.
"Save the ER for those true medical emergencies," she said. "When somebody is having an emergency, they need that access, they need that care."
Dr. Buchanan said the flu can make you miserable, but you probably don't need the ER.
"If you have mild symptoms like fever, cough, body aches, you just don't feel very good, you could go see your doctor or just tough it out at home."
She says prevention is best to avoid the flu--- wash your hands and get your flu shot before you get sick. The Knox County Health Department still has shots available.
If you do get sick, Buchanan said "Use your judgement and common sense and save the ER for true medical emergencies and seek out care elsewhere for those non-emergency type situations."
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