CHEO saw over 200 kids in the emergency department on a daily basis: staff

The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) is planning for the worst-case scenario in the coming weeks, as the hospital continues to deal with an unprecedented number of kids visiting the emergency rooms.

In a virtual conference on Friday, Nov. 18, the chief executive officer of CHEO, Alex Munter, said treating kids for the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is not entirely new, but the high number of kids that CHEO has been treating in recent months have been unlike anything hospital officials have ever seen. 

CHEO's chief of staff, Dr. Lindy Samson, who was also at the conference, said the majority of kids who need to be treated for respiratory-related illnesses are mostly under the age of five and this leaves the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) at a higher capacity.

“We are at least at double what we usually are set up to see and today, we are at 200 per cent exactly compared to what we're usually able to care for,” said Dr. Sampson. “So, we really want to make sure we have the space and capacity to care for those kids, and that (really) we're the only hospital in the region that (currently) looks at children of that age.” 

Dr. Samson also noted the hospital's emergency department is built for roughly 150 kids, and this month alone, the hospital has been averaging about 241 children coming in for care on a daily basis. She noted that the lack of hospital beds is also causing a high volume and longer wait times in emergency departments.

But to alleviate the growing crisis, CHEO said they're directing all youth over the age of 16, who are in need of in-patient or urgent care to other city hospitals including the Ottawa Hospital, Queensway-Carleton Hospital or Hôpital Montfort. 

Munter said that the hospital is hoping for the best, but is preparing for the worst-case scenario in the coming weeks.