CHEO’s emergency department handling more patients than it was designed for due to surge in RSV cases

The emergency department at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) is still far more patients than it was designed for, and hospital officials said the reason is a surge in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

While RSV is a virus that is around every year, younger children are coming down with it now and CHEO's emergency room doctor, Dr. Melissa Langevin, said the same measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 also prevented the exposure to RSV. 

“If you have one child who has RSV, normally you will have a range of kids that would have seen it in the past,” she said.  “And now, it is much more likely that if you have a child who is under two or three who is more susceptible to much more symptoms from it, they will catch it and have it for the first time.”

RSV usually clears in a little over a week, but can make children quite sick if they are very young or immunocompromised. Dr. Langevin said if a child is having trouble breathing, it's time to see a doctor. 

“If clearing the nose doesn't help, that's usually an indication to see a primary care provider or us in emergency if they are having more and more trouble,” she added.

RSV cases has seen a surge in patients at CHEO's emergency department, and the hospital's chief executive officer (CEO), Alex Munter, said there were 254 visits in CHEO's emergency department on Oct. 25. 

Hospital officials said they are still moving staff from other parts of the hospital into the emergency department to relieve some pressure. 

“Just to put that into context, the emergency department was built for 150 visits,” he said. 

Munter said that some surgeries requiring the pediatric intensive care unit have been cancelled due to the rise in demand in the emergency department. 

“These are cancellations for only some of the surgeries requiring the pediatric intensive care unit,” saisd Munter. “We do everything we can not to postpone these procedures, but sometimes it is unavoidable. We have cancelled more recently due to the surge (a few per week), but certainly not all.”