WATCH: RSV case surge leaves hospitals in 'crisis'

As parents plan for holiday travel and gatherings, Washington state pediatric hospitals are navigating capacity and staffing issues that are putting significant strain on providers.

Facilities around the state are operating at 100% capacity on a regular basis, with some, like Seattle Children's, facing 300% capacity in the evenings.

"This is our COVID," said Taya Briley, executive vice president of the Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA).

Pediatric hospitals often helped lighten the burden on adult hospitals with COVID-19 patients during the peaks of the pandemic. Now the roles are being reversed as pediatric facilities face similar surges.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been the primary culprit behind the crowding of pediatric beds in hospitals around the country.

Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma is reporting its highest number of admittances for RSV in its history, while roughly half of all admitted to Providence Sacred Heart Hospital recently have been for RSV.

"We now see patients in hallways, in and outside the ED (emergency department), storeroom, in several lobbies to try and make up for this volume," said Dr. Tony Woodward, the medical director of Emergency Medicine for Seattle Children's. "We need to expand even further because we are not

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