Hospital capacity
Seattle Children’s is beginning to experience some relief from the extremely high capacity constraints of recent months. We do, however, continue to see high winter volumes.
- Overall hospital census remains high, and the Emergency Department (ED) is still seeing extremely high patient volumes.
- The wave of patients experiencing mental and behavioral health crises is not slowing down.
- Seattle Children’s remains in active Code Yellow status, although at a lower level of response; we continue to monitor the situation and enact solutions to address the challenges we are facing.
Other important updates from Seattle Children’s
- Synagis season has ended: Due to exponential declines in RSV rates and related admissions, Seattle Children’s is no longer administering Synagis prophylaxis as of Tuesday, February 28. For more information, please consult state-specific recommendations for patients outside of our local area and review WA state and other data from the CDC.
- We have a scheduling backlog; please encourage families to proactively call us to schedule. We are hiring additional scheduling staff to keep pace with high demand but our pace of calling out to families to schedule is slower than we’d like. In some cases, patients may get an appointment several weeks sooner if they proactively call us to schedule instead of waiting for one of our schedulers to call them.
- GI has high referral volumes and long wait times; please manage constipation in primary care whenever possible.
- Non-urgent general GI referrals without red flags, including constipation, are currently scheduling 3 to 5 months out.
- GI has approximately 3,000 referrals in their scheduling queue with limited slots immediately available.
- GI is still accepting constipation referrals but encourages PCPs to see these patients in primary care whenever possible to ensure timely care. This will also help Seattle Children’s maintain good access for patients who most need specialty care.
- Our GI Refer a Patient webpage offers many PCP resources including:
Seattle Children’s is pleased to announced Dr. Terri Laguna has accepted the position of division chief of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine at Seattle Children’s.
She is coming to us from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago where she is division head of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and director of the Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia Center of Excellence. Read full post »
As Seattle Children’s referral volumes continue to grow, we are hiring additional scheduling staff to keep pace with demand. But until we are fully staffed later this Spring, our pace of calling out to families to schedule their appointments will continue to be slower than we’d like.
In some cases, patients may get an appointment several weeks sooner if they proactively call to schedule instead of waiting for one of our schedulers to call them.
When referring a patient to Seattle Children’s, please advise the family to call us to make their appointment (1-2 days after the referral is submitted).
We regret this inconvenience to families but believe this will help them receive better service in the short term.
Our Heart Center is proud to introduce the inaugural edition of Seattle Children’s Cardiac Beat. In the first issue, you’ll find information about:
Seattle Children’s Cardiac Beat will publish news and information about the latest diagnostic, therapeutic and research advances in cardiovascular diseases and cardiac surgery at Seattle Children’s.
Seattle Children’s has purchased 43.9 acres of land in Renton, Washington to invest in our future growth. Making this investment will help ensure Children’s can continue to provide hope, care and cures to every child in our region who needs us. Future clinical services located at this site will position Seattle Children’s to serve more patients who need care, closer to home.
We plan to lease the existing office buildings to other organizations until we are ready to develop.
Planning and permitting for the future of this site will take several years and any capital investment must be balanced and timed with other priorities across the organization. It is not yet known what services could be located in Renton, nor is there a specific schedule in place for development at this time.
In order to expand access to pediatric primary care in Washington state, Seattle Children’s will begin offering virtual visits with our urgent care providers beginning in mid-January. In addition, our Urgent Care (UC) clinic in Seattle at the hospital has moved to a larger space, added providers and expanded its weekday hours to open at 11 a.m. (versus 4 p.m.) effective Monday, January 9.
Virtual visits
- Will begin mid-January
- Patients must be in Washington state at the time of their virtual visit.
- Virtual UC hours: 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
- To schedule, families should use the online Urgent Care scheduling portal and choose “video visit” as their preferred location.
- Virtual visits will be for children with these symptoms:
- Allergies
- Bite (animal, human, insect)
- Cold and flu symptoms
- Constipation
- Cough/congestion
- Croup
- Diarrhea
- Eye infection
- Fever age 2+ years
- Head injury (no loss of consciousness)
- Injury advice
- Lice
- Nausea/vomiting
- Sinus infection
- Skin rash
- Sore throat
- Urinary tract infection
Read full post »
A family arrives for their first appointment at Seattle Children’s Magnuson
Seattle Children’s is pleased to share that on December 12, 2022, Seattle Children’s Magnuson opened as the new showcase home for Seattle Children’s Autism Center and outpatient behavioral health services.
The new 45,000-square-foot clinic was entirely funded by donations as a result of the vision of Seattle Children’s Generation REACH initiative to transform mental health care for all youth and families.
“Seattle Children’s is working to create a future where every young person has access to evidence-based mental and behavioral health services when and where they need them,” said Dr. Carol Rockhill, medical director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinics, Seattle Children’s. “Seattle Children’s Magnuson is a huge step in that direction, providing more treatment rooms and clinical spaces, better technology, gathering spaces for families and children with mental health care needs, autism and more.” Read full post »
Pediatric Nursing Update Conference, January 27, 2023, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. via Webex. Practical tips, tools, resources and information to help better serve children with special healthcare needs and their families. Register online or view the brochure.
Category 1 CME series
- Adolescent Medicine Updates, January 21, 2023, 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. via Zoom. This highly practical course will provide current information on the most up-to-date best practices for primary care of adolescents. Brochure. Register Now.
- Practical Pediatrics, February 4, 2023, 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Seattle Children’s hospital campus, Wright Auditorium. Course covers diagnostic and management updates to address gaps in practice encountered in primary care of children. In-person. Brochure. Register Now.
- Urgent Pediatric Problems, March 4, 2023, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sand Point Learning Center near Seattle Children’s. Brochure.
Provider Grand Rounds
Year-round on Thursdays from 8 to 9 a.m. Learn more. Read full post »
To continue to improve access and patient care, we anticipate making some changes to the Provider-to-Provider Line (“Q7” line) in early 2023. Please be assured the line is not going away; we recognize its importance to our community. Our goal is to meet the needs of our referring provider community while alleviating the strain the Q7 line places on our specialties, which field high call volumes. Any changes we make will be based on input we gather from community providers and Seattle Children’s providers.
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