DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Dayton Children’s Hospital says they’re officially over capacity for patients. However, they made a pledge to never turn a patient away and so, they’re having to get creative to make extra bed spaces available.

“To have 45 patients with the same single virus is a big number,” said General Pediatrician Dr. Miri Lader, Dayton Children’s. “We’re past capacity now but that doesn’t mean we’re too full to accept patients, just means we’re getting creative making patient spaces.”

That creativity is possible thanks to plans put in place when the hospital was built. It’s making all the difference now as Dayton Children’s patient list continues to grow.

“When they built the building, they purposely had surges like this in mind,” said Dr. Lader. “Our playroom has oxygen connections so if we need to, we’re prepared to put patients in their own little slots in the playrooms.”

Dayton Children’s is reporting a significant spike in testing for RSV cases, approaching 600 positive tests compared to 100 last year. Even with the spike in RSV, influenza and COVID cases, Dr. Lader does not believe this is a true triple-demic.

“What’s happening here is we’re having a bunch of patients with diseases we’re familiar with, know how to treat, know how to support while patients get better, even with covid we have way better understanding of what it’s going to do and set patients up for recovery, the problem is it’s all happening at once,” said Dr. Lader.

Dayton Children’s says there’s only two reasons why your child may get admitted for RSV; if they’re having difficulty breathing or considered severely dehydrated. Otherwise, they say most kids are safe to recover at home.