Just as a slow-starting influenza season begins to gather momentum, Ohio hospitals won permission Friday to open beds normally reserved for non-acute care uses.

        But how much difference the extra beds will make for hospitals already struggling to hire enough staff remains a question.

        “Ohio is experiencing an urgent medical situation,” Dr. J. Nick Baird, director of the Ohio Department of Health, wrote Friday in a letter to the Health Care Financing Administration, the agency that runs Medicare.

        “Since the beginning of February 2001, increased levels of respiratory illness have resulted in closure of hospital emergency departments and diversion of medical-surgical patients to other hospitals due to a lack of hospital inpatient beds.”

        Dr. Baird requested and received permission for hospitals to begin admitting general medical-surgical cases to beds normally restricted to rehabilitation, psychiatric or ambulatory surgery use.

        The temporary exemption to Medicare rules remains in effect until April 1. Without the approval, hospitals could not bill Medicare for the special use.

        Cincinnati hospital officials say the change will give hospitals more flexibility to move patients out of emergency department bays and hallways.

        But it won't eliminate the staff shortages and patient logjams that have prompted record numbers of ambulance diversions.

        “The hospitals are doing all they can, but staffing is still a problem,” said Lynn Olman, president of the Greater Cincinnati Health Council.

        Tristate hospitals have been busy with a wave of winter illnesses that have swamped physicians' offices and prompted several school closings.

        But true influenza has barely begun to strike. In fact, the Ohio Department of Health noted this week that influenza is running at its lowest levels in more than 20 years.

        Through the first week of February, doctors had reported 1,288 cases of suspected influenza to the Ohio Department of Health. That's three times lower than the 4,172 cases reported by the same time last year.

        Influenza is an upper respiratory virus that can make people feel as if they've been run over by a truck. The illness is especially dangerous to the elderly and people with compromised immune systems, and typically kills 20,000 Americans a year.

        Much concern about this year's flu season has been raised because manufacturing problems caused months of delay in annual flu shot campaigns. As a result, many seniors lined up at area grocery stores and pharmacies because flu shots weren't available from doctors and health departments.

        In Ohio and Kentucky, officials say influenza has spread only regionally — meaning cases have not been confirmed in areas including at least 50 percent of the population. Indiana has reported only sporadic cases.

        A year ago, Ohio reported widespread influenza by Jan. 11.

        “This is the slowest start we've seen in 24 years,” said Jay Carey, Ohio Department of Health spokesman.

        Influenza is picking up, however. In the first week of February, doctors statewide reported 566 suspected cases of flu - more than double the 217 reported the week before.

        So far, the delay in true flu has been a godsend for Greater Cincinnati hospitals. Had influenza hit even normal peaks, the record level of hospital diversions last month would have approached near-disaster levels.

        But having permission to use other types of beds has limited value.

        At the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, the change will allow Christ Hospital to open some beds, said spokeswoman Amy Bomar. But University Hospital already has open beds that it lacks the staff to use. Perpetually busy Jewish Hospital does not offer some of the speciality beds that can now be opened up. And the Ohio permission does nothing for the alliance's St. Luke hospitals in Northern Kentucky, Ms. Bomar said.

        Looking ahead, the severity of the hospital crunch will depend on how much higher the flu numbers go.

        Some have speculated that the sharp increase in public awareness about flu shots this year may have blunted the season. But it remains too early to conclude this will be a mild year for the flu.

        “In Ohio, flu season normally runs from October through March and sometimes lingers into April,” said Barb Bradley, chief of the ODH bureau of infectious disease.

        “We don't know if it will keep going up this year or not. We were very lucky it didn't start as heavily in November and December.”

City's oldest black church honors 3 who nurtured it
Ohio leading tobacco fight
Gas station pumps Ludlow's spirits
Spinney Field proposal sacked
DARE dares to alter formula
SAMPLES: Rude and crude
Friend testifies about breakup
Man gets at least 63 years in killings
Soldier's patience rewarded: Medal came after 33 years
Criminal checks now mandatory
School drug charges filed, raised
Sister Cookie to lead the way
HOWARD: Neighborhoods
MCNUTT: Arts festival
Bill would add violent felons to DNA database
Blandford still says conviction was unfair
Check-cashing bill reconsidered
Different fates may await bills
Experts: Reporting bullies the only way to end abuse
Fairfield school levy looms
Former GM worker says he lied
Group seeks tribe label
Health agency names interim chief
Hospitals win OK to open beds for flu
House passes tuition help for foster kids
Maineville police chief sues to keep force intact
Man dies in Hamilton shooting
Meeting sought over OxyContin
Men scarce on campus; recruitment considered
New boss at health department
Shirey interviews for job in Texas
State takes action to redirect agriculture
Vendors want Wallace's Bookstores to pay
Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report