Responding to respiratory viruses, St. Luke’s offering free 24-hour ‘suction’ clinics

Amid an increase in respiratory virus cases in recent months, St. Luke’s has unveiled six pediatric outpatient clinics, also known as suction clinics, to help children battling the viruses.

The temporary, 24-hour clinics – which join an existing Boise Medical Center clinic – are located in Meridian, Magic Valley, Nampa, Fruitland, Elmore and the Wood River Valley, according to a news release from St. Luke’s Health System. The clinics offer “deep suctioning treatments” to those 3 years old and younger at no cost, the release said.

The treatment is an option for children with RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) or bronchiolitis, which can be caused by RSV. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “virtually all children” get an RSV infection by the time they are 2 years old, but most just cause a cold-like illness.

St. Luke’s spokesperson Christine Myron told the Idaho Statesman that children don’t have to test positive for RSV to be seen at the clinics, though they do need to be diagnosed with bronchiolitis. Myron added that the health system as a whole is also seeing influenza and other viruses among pediatric patients.

“Through these new clinics, we have seen 235 visits among more than 100 kids in our communities in a matter of weeks,” said Dr. Kenny Bramwell, St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital system medical director. “Just one year ago, before these clinics existed, these kids would have gone to the emergency department or been admitted to the hospital for care. Through the (respiratory outpatient clinic), we have kept more than 100 kids out of the hospital so far.”

RSV typically becomes more prevalent in January, but Bramwell told reporters in November that the virus started early this season. There are only two hospitals – St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital in Boise and St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls – in the region that admit patients for the virus.

The clinics are expected to remain open “as long as the respiratory surge continues,” Myron said by email. She added that the clinics are typically located near hospital emergency rooms, so they aren’t necessarily new spaces but just a repurposed room.

“We will closely monitor the demand and usage of these clinics,” Myron told the Statesman. “It is possible these clinics are a strategy we could stand up during other future seasons of respiratory illness.”

Children can be referred to the clinic by medical professionals within St. Luke’s, according to the release. The clinics are staffed with respiratory therapists who can monitor a child’s heart rate and oxygen levels along with the suction treatment, which offers a “deep suctioning of nasal mucus and phlegm.”

The clinics are not staffed with nurses or physicians, but if a child is in need of different or additional care, they can be moved to the emergency department.

“Given that we are functioning in contingency standards of care where we’re at times experiencing bed capacity issues, longer wait times in our emergency departments and patients being cared for in other parts of our hospital … we count these clinics a great success for keeping a number of children out of the hospital and providing them with some relief in their recovery from these viruses,” said Bramwell, an emergency room physician.