BOISE, Idaho — St. Luke's Children's Hospital is facing high demand for care, and the hospital is evaluating bed availability every few hours, according to St. Luke's Children's System Medical Director Dr. Kenny Bramwell.
Hospitals across the country are working to meet increased patient needs caused by a trio of respiratory illnesses, according to St. Luke's Chief Physician Dr. Jim Souza.
Idaho healthcare leaders called the simultaneous spread of COVID-19, Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and influenza a "triple-demic" in a previous media briefing held on Dec. 15.
"We are doing our best to take in as many patients as we can and to avoid transferring patients from our emergency departments out of state. At times we have had to decline requests from other regional medical centers to take in patients," Dr. Bramwell wrote in an email. "While we continue to experience staffing challenges, we have seen some improvement in open bed capacity over the last few days in our Children’s Hospital. We are hopeful this trend continues, and we want everyone to remind everyone to continue to do their part to minimize risk of illness for them and their children this time of year."
The latest numbers from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) show percent positivity rates for all three viruses exceed 5%. Those numbers - provided through the Dec. 15 media briefing - show influenza percent positivity rates are more than 30%, and RSV rates are more than 20%.
COVID-19 percent positivity rates remain largely unchanged from early October at around 8%.
State healthcare leaders have used the 5% threshold to determine whether virus spread is within control. RSV and influenza were both below this benchmark in mid-October.
Hospitals are also facing difficulty acquiring certain medications - this is a reality at St. Luke's too, according to Dr. Souza. He explicitly said during the Dec. 15 media briefing the hospital is rationing, but not restricting.
"It blows me away we are struggling with things like this," Dr. Souza said. "These are common drugs. And we are running low."
Dr. Souza specifically listed off children’s liquid Tylenol, ibuprofen, amoxicillin, and a "handful of antibiotics."
IDHW backs up St. Luke's experience; however, they add there is little infrastructure in place for the department to assist in solutions.
"Our public health officials rely on what providers have been telling them. DHW doesn’t have stockpiles of any of the drugs that are in spot shortage, or a way to help with the shortage, other than by holding medical operations coordination calls where hospitals can hopefully share intel--and possibly any extra medications," IDHW Public Information Officer Greg Stahl wrote KTVB in an email.
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