Respiratory virus season is sweeping across the nation, and Washington hospitals are struggling to meet the need.
This week, Jennifer Aspelund says she took her son to the Emergency Room at UW Medicine-Montlake. He’s immunocompromised and had RSV. She says doctors told her he would need to be admitted overnight, but that they didn’t have the bed space.
“I was just shocked, like, ‘No room? What is going on?” says Aspelund.
She tells KIRO 7 that doctors told her that Harborview Medical Center and some of the other UW hospitals were also out of overnight beds. Doctors transferred him to Northwest Hospital. The hospital system calls it a ‘coordinated transfer’.
“Unexpected and unacceptable,” says Aspelund. She worries that other families might face an unexpected transfer, which adds to the stress of an emergency room visit.
KIRO 7 reached out to hospitals across Western Washington, with each confirming a capacity crunch driven by the spike in flu cases. The CDC is calling it the worst flu season since 2009.
In Pierce County, a spokesperson tells KIRO 7, ‘All of MultiCare’s hospitals in the Puget Sound are at or over capacity. We’ve seen an uptick in flu cases over the past week. RSV has leveled off. We have implemented masking requirements in patient care areas in all our hospitals.’
A spokesperson with Seattle Children’s Hospital tells KIRO 7, ‘Seattle Children’s has seen a recent surge in influenza cases and as a result, we have seen an uptick in the number of patients seeking care in our Emergency Department (ED). We have added staffing and have opened additional care spaces to meet the demand.”
Providence-Swedish and UW Medicine have also confirmed recent increases in influenza patients. A spokesperson for UW Medicine tells KIRO 7 that as of Friday afternoon, they are not doing coordinated transfers, as hospitals have the capacity to handle the flu influx.
Dr. Scott Lindquist, the State Epidemiologist for Communicable Diseases, says capacity issues during flu season are a long-standing reality.
“It does happen, and it has been happening for as many years as I have been here in Washington state,” says Dr. Lindquist.
The state’s latest numbers show 362 weekly hospitalizations from influenza. The same period last year saw 97 hospitalizations. There were 61 weekly flu hospitalizations in 2023.
The heightened hospitalizations come as vaccination rates are down across the county, especially for kids.
“Vaccines are a personal decision, but for me, it is one of the only ways we have to prevent infections,” says Dr. Lindquist. “They’re not 100% at preventing infections, but more importantly, they prevent really bad outcomes like hospitalizations or deaths.”