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 new hospital wing, Forest B, opened 20 new surgical inpatient rooms on the 8th floor, bringing the total number of surgical inpatient beds at Seattle Children’s to 94 — a 27% increase.
The new inpatient rooms are single-occupant and primarily serve patients who are recovering from general surgery and urology procedures. The inpatient unit includes a lounge and kitchen for family use.
Forest B was completed in summer 2022 and has been opening in waves, with eight new operating rooms and two catheterization labs opening last October followed by the opening in December of the new outpatient space for the Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Forest B sits adjacent to the Emergency Department and serves as the hospital’s new “front door.” Learn more.
Hospital capacity in Washington State
- The Washington Medical Control Center (WMCC) is reporting a decrease in calls after their record numbers in December. WMCC is the regional transfer center developed during COVID-19 to ensure statewide situational awareness and to balance patient distribution across the state.
- Hospitals across the state continue to report heavy adult ED boarding and most large hospital systems still have a census above 100%.
- SARS-CoV2 is rising nationally and another surge is expected but we are not seeing significant rises in adult or pediatric hospitalizations for COVID-19 at this time.
- The large pediatric patient surge we experienced in November has improved over the last two months. There have not been any pediatric transfers that required WMCC since January 13.
Capacity at Seattle Children’s
- The Emergency Department (ED) is seeing lower volumes than the record numbers of patients seen in November and is back to regular high winter volumes. We continue to have high mental health boarding in the ED with high acuity with occasional longer waiting times.
- Seattle Children’s inpatient census has remained above our historical baseline with high patient acuity and technological needs.
- We are monitoring viral curves closely for RSV/influenza/other viruses. We have seen a downward trend overall but will know more in the next few weeks. We have not seen Influenza B yet but it generally follows Influenza A in late winter or early spring.
- We are going live this week with a new post-procedural short stay unit to increase operative capacity that does not impact inpatient bed spaces.
When sending patients to the ED
- Our ED is open and ready to care for your patients; please do not hesitate to send patients when the ED is the appropriate setting for care.
- When sending patients to the ED, please call our ED Communications Center at 206-987-8899 to help us plan for their arrival.
- Let families know they may experience longer waits for non-critical issues and that we continue to triage to identify and see the most emergent patients first.
We continue to be deeply grateful to our colleagues in the community who are working relentlessly to care for pediatric patients in primary care and preserve capacity in hospitals and urgent cares for those patients who need it most. Thank you!
For more information:
Pediatric hospitalization in WA
- The Washington Medical Control Center (WMCC) is the regional transfer center developed during COVID-19 to ensure statewide situational awareness and to balance patient distribution across the state. They reported that in December they had the highest numbers of calls ever in the pandemic. This is indicative of the immense strain on the hospital system.
- The large pediatric surge we experienced in November improved in December as WMCC reported fewer requests for assistance for pediatric transfers.
Capacity at Seattle Children’s
- The Emergency Department (ED) is seeing lower volumes than the record numbers of patients seen in November. We anticipate those numbers rising as people return from holiday travel and start back to school. We continue to have high mental health boarding in the ED with high acuity.
- Seattle Children’s maintained high inpatient census with increased staffing challenges through the holidays. We also have had very high acuity and high technology needs in the ICUs that challenged our ability to accommodate all surgical cases and transfers. We anticipate staffing challenges to improve over the next couple weeks.
- We are monitoring viral curves closely for RSV/influenza/other viruses. We have seen a downward trend overall but will know more in the next few weeks. We have not yet seen Influenza B but expect it will show up at some point.
- SARS-CoV 2 is rising regionally and nationally as the Omicron variant XXB.1.5 becomes the dominant strain. We are monitoring this rise closely and are currently unsure of the impact on pediatric patients.
- Capacity in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Unit (PBMU) will be limited in 2023 due to two important initiatives that will provide improved care and capacity in the long-term: staff training to support a new model of care and replacement of the fire alarm system. We recognize any bed reductions in the PBMU will affect other departments, especially the ED. We are working to identify options for increased capacity for boarding ED mental health patients and are watching patient volumes closely to determine the safest options for care.
When sending patients to the ED
- Our ED is open and ready to care for your patients; please do not hesitate to send patients when the ED is the appropriate setting for care.
- When sending patients to the ED, please call our ED Communications Center at 206-987-8899 to help us plan for their arrival.
- Let families know they may experience longer waits for non-critical issues and that we continue to triage to identify and see the most emergent patients first.
We continue to be deeply grateful to our colleagues in the community who are working relentlessly to care for pediatric patients in primary care and preserve capacity in hospitals and urgent cares for those patients who need it most. Thank you!
For more information:
