But we want to make sure we can deliver the care they need if a bed is not available,” Biddinger said.
“If they need the ICU and a bed is available, we will transfer them there. And while the use of certain therapies might automatically send a patient to the ICU in the past, now it is a question of whether there is a bed. In addition to delaying pediatric surgeries, some hospitals are having to provide care that normally would be delivered in the ICU in lower intensity beds, such as for a child in respiratory distress. Maine Medical Center had three available PICU beds.Īccording to Boston MedFlight, as of Thursday morning, there were only four available PICU beds in all of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Southern Maine, and Rhode Island.
#CAPACITY CRUNCH MEANING FULL#
PICUs were also full at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and Rhode Island’s Hasbro Children’s Hospital. No beds were available at Boston Medical Center’s or Baystate Medical Center’s pediatric intensive care units, or PICUs.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital had three of 60 NICU beds available. According to a rundown of bed availability provided daily by Boston MedFlight to area hospitals and obtained by the Globe, Massachusetts General Hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit was full on Thursday, as were all of its 21 neonatal intensive care unit beds. Transferring patients to more intensive beds, however, has become exceedingly tricky. Hospitals should also use beds available at community hospitals and transfer patients there as appropriate, the guidance says. The DPH also suggested that younger patients could be admitted to neonatal intensive care units and that patients 15 and older could be admitted to adult medical-surgical or ICU floors, provided that pediatric experts were available to consult on the children’s care. The guidance added that all hospitals with licensed pediatric beds must be staffing them, even if it requires the facility to use temporary or contract labor to do so. The guidance included a recommendation that all emergency departments be prepared to provide oxygen support to children through high-flow nasal cannula - a treatment that patients would typically receive on a hospital floor after being admitted. Last Monday, the Department of Public Health issued guidance to hospitals dealing with the capacity crunch. Charlotte Boney, pediatrician-in-chief at Baystate Children’s Hospital. “We don’t have the beds for kids now for RSV and other respiratory viruses,” said Dr. Meanwhile, the hospital is warily eyeing the rise in flu infections in Connecticut and the southern part of the country. Overflow pediatric beds are also being put in the adult medical intensive care unit. The pediatric hospital has asked community hospitals affiliated with the system to keep 18-to-21-year-old patients instead of sending them to the children’s hospital as they normally would. It is also trying to create capacity in other ways. “We recognize this is upsetting to everyone.”īoston Medical Center said it, too, had postponed several scheduled surgeries and was working daily with hospitals in the area to manage inpatient capacity.īaystate Children’s Hospital is also delaying what few scheduled surgeries it has. “We reach out to patients and families as soon as we know their case is being postponed,” said Kristen Dattoli, a spokesperson for the hospital. The hospital was postponing surgical cases where a delay wouldn’t be detrimental to a patient. “And so some patients may need breathing support in the pediatric intensive care unit.”īoston Children’s Hospital said it has been at or over capacity for nearly six weeks and expected its number of patients would continue to climb into the winter.
Brian Cummings, medical director in the Department of Pediatrics at Mass General for Children. “Usually those hospitalizations are brief, but it can be very severe,” said Dr. Mass General Brigham clinicians also said this year’s surge is higher than what is typically seen in the winter months.Ĭlinicians noted that the vast majority of children infected with RSV recover. But this year, the virus has struck earlier than usual, likely because masking and social distancing during the first two years of the pandemic prevented children from developing immunity to RSV and other common bugs. Of those, 250 have required some level of hospitalization, and 10 to 20 percent have required intensive care unit beds.Įach year, RSV lands 58,000 to 80,000 children younger than 5 in the hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has seen another 1,000 cases in just the first week of November. In October, Mass General Brigham saw 2,000 cases of the virus. Hospital executives said pediatric intensive care unit beds at Massachusetts General for Children were operating at 150 percent capacity, and there were few signs the surge was nearing an end.
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