highlights:

• Dayton Children’s will soon start to accept adult patients (up to age 35)  transferred from adult hospitals with certain diagnoses that fit within the scope of what Dayton Children’s staff can treat.
• Dayton Children’s will not be treating adults with a primary COVID-19 diagnosis.
• Parents of teens and adults up to age 21 are also being encouraged to use Dayton Children’s for emergency and urgent care services whenever possible in order to reduce the strain on the adult hospitals.

Eight months ago, Dayton Children’s began a surge plan in the event that our area hospitals became overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients and we needed to accept adult patients to support the surge volume. Luckily the COVID cases at that time remained low, and the plan simply sat on a shelf. In recent weeks, COVID cases in our community have dramatically spiked. Weeks ago, our adult partners had roughly two dozen hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Today, those numbers have increased almost ten-fold, and they are nearly at capacity.

To support the adult hospitals in our region, Dayton Children’s will soon start to accept adult patients (up to age 35)  transferred from adult hospitals with certain diagnoses that fit within the scope of what Dayton Children’s staff can treat. Dayton Children’s will not be treating adults with a primary COVID-19 diagnosis.

Parents of teens and adults up to age 21 are also being encouraged to use Dayton Children’s for emergency and urgent care services whenever possible in order to reduce the strain on the adult hospitals. Dayton Children’s has always treated patients up to age 21 and is fully equipped to meet the health needs of these families. 

“We are all committed to working very closely with our adult hospital partners in the community to develop the safest plan possible to help care for some of their volume surge,” says Adam Mezoff, MD, chief medical officer and vice president for care transformation at Dayton Children’s. “If helping them allows our neighbors, our friends, our coworkers or our family members to be treated in a hospital instead of a created space such as the Dayton Convention Center, then we are all-in. Our community is calling; we must answer the call.”

FAQs:

What diagnoses are being transferred to Dayton Children’s? Are these COVID patients?

At this time, the main diagnosis for adult patients being transferred to Dayton Children’s will not be COVID-19. However, all patients being admitted to Dayton Children’s or having surgery are tested for COVID. If an adult patient being admitted tests positive, they will be treated using Dayton Children’s COVID-19 safety protocols.

Can adults now come to Dayton Children’s for treatment in order to avoid the adult hospitals?

Dayton Children’s has always treated up to age 21 and that is no different. At this time, we are not encouraging those over age 21 to come to Dayton Children’s for care. If the adult hospitals need to implement their surge plan they will contact Dayton Children’s to have a patient transferred.