COLUMBUS – Ohio’s top health officials are sounding the warning that there is too much sickness in the state and not enough room in the hospital.
After spending the last two years battling the coronavirus, weary health care workers are now dealing with a rise in respiratory ailments that is straining the state’s hospitals and clinics.
Respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, is “raging” in Ohio just as cases of the seasonal flu have begun to increase, according to Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the Ohio Department of Health.
“RSV has hit us hard this year and has hit us early but, right on the tails of this, we are already seeing many more admissions to our hospitals for the flu,” said Dr. Claudia Hoyen, director of infection control, University Hospitals (UH) and UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital during a press briefing Tuesday.
Though the number of RSV cases appear to be leveling off in other parts of the country, hospitals, doctors’ offices and urgent-care centers in Ohio have seen cases of much earlier in the season than usual and in greater numbers, placing a burden on health care facilities that were already struggling with staffing issues, said Dr. Rustin Morse, chief medical officer at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
“It’s been a long three years,” Hoyen said.
Many emergency rooms and urgent-care clinics are experiencing double the volume od patients they would ordinarily see at this time of year, according to Dr. Patty Manning-Courtney, chief of staff at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
Vanderhoff and the other health experts says parents should get their children vaccinated against the flu, practice good hand-washing habits, keep the children home from school if they are sick and, if they think they should seek medical help, try their family physician or an urgent-care clinic before going to an already crowded hospital emergency room.