BOSTON - Boston Children’s Hospital is curtailing elective procedures partly due to a surge in RSV or respiratory syncytial virus.
“With the tremendous surge in RSV and flu we are seeing a tremendous volume uptick in children’s hospitals,” said Lisa O’Connor, a consultant for FTI, whose background is in nursing and as a hospital executive.
She tells Boston 25 that this is happening across the state and the country.
“I can understand why they would have to restrict elective type cases in order to divert their resources to take care of the most sick right now.”
Boston Children’s sent a statement which says in part:
“We review elective procedures in order to ensure that we have the capacity to care for our most at-risk patients, and at this time, we are reducing our elective schedule. We continue to monitor the situation and adjust our process as needed.” - Boston Children’s Hospital
RSV can cause severe illness in young children and elderly people. Cases detected by PCR tests have more than tripled over the past two months.
It’s a seasonal illness that children typically get exposed to but then Covid hit
“The last 2 years have not been the norm. People were cooped up in their homes and not exposed to one another. This is what happens over the normal course of infection and seasonal change,” said O’Connor.
Another factor in a reduction of elective procedures is staffing. Boston Children’s says that’s not a problem for them but it is a major issue at many hospitals leading to possible burnout.
“Those vacancies put pressure on them which is another reason hospitals are curtailing some of these electives procedures and surgeries,” said O’Connor.
The worker shortage is chronic. It’s estimated that there are 19-thousand vacant positions in Massachusetts. And it is also impacting emergency room wait times which can be hours long and over 12 hours or more in some cases.
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