Pediatric emergency departments remain in chronic crisis after 2022 tripledemic, says opinion piece

The authors argue that the surge in pediatric patients that peaked in 2022 has become a routine reality, leaving emergency departments across the country in a state of permanent crisis.

A rural hospital in the Sierra Nevada mountains illustrates the problem: without pediatric specialists, nurses, or an intensive care unit, staff had to call regional children's hospitals for help. During the 2022 "tripledemic" of COVID-19, flu and RSV, every nearby children's hospital was at capacity and could not accept the transfer.

The lack of a coordinated system to locate available pediatric ICU beds forced clinicians to rely on a manual phone tree, delaying critical care and contributing to patient deaths, a situation the authors say must be addressed.