Flu sends hordes to Cedar Rapids hospitals

The H1N1 flu is attacking Eastern Iowa.

The emergency rooms at Mercy Medical Center and St. Luke's Hospital saw record-breaking numbers of patients this weekend because of the illness, commonly called swine flu.

In addition, 14 Cedar Rapids public schools had more than 10 percent of their students absent with the flu Monday. School officials can't remember the last time that many students stayed home sick, and hospital officials say the same.

“We've not seen this before,” said Sandi McIntosh, St. Luke's emergency services director.

LIVE CHAT: Join Linn County Public Health Director Curtis Dickson for a live chat from 11 a.m. to Noon today to answer your questions about H1N1 and the seasonal flu.

St. Luke's averages 156 emergency patients a day with a variety of ailments. On Saturday it treated 208 people - a record-setting number if you don't count visits during last year's flood, when Mercy's facilities were out of commission. By 9:30 last night, the hospital had treated 185 patients for the day.

“We knew this was probably going to happen, so we've been taking precautionary measures,” McIntosh said.

A few blocks away, Mercy typically serves 125 emergency room patients a day. On Sunday, a record-breaking 183 people sought emergency care. And by 9:30 last night, the hospital had treated 178 emergency patients.

“It always concerns us when we have that many people coming to the emergency department, but we plan for that and we're staffed for that,” Mercy emergency department director Matthew Aucutt said.

Doctors think fears of the flu have prompted many people to seek immediate care that might be unnecessary.

“There are some people coming in that, in the ideal world, if they just stayed home, that would be the best,” McIntosh said.

The hospitals are not admitting record numbers of patients. Instead, doctors send people home unless they have severe symptoms.

Health department officials say the H1N1 spreads quickly because most people are not vaccinated. Once more vaccine becomes available, Linn County Public Health plans to organize clinics to allow large numbers of people to be vaccinated.