ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Busy, very busy.  That’s how local children’s hospitals describe their emergency rooms these days.

But, it’s hard to attribute the big influx of patients to any one thing.

Cardinal Glennon’s chief of medical operations, Dr. John Peter,  says they’re seeing a wide range of illnesses among kids this winter, “It’s not like in years past where we had a huge influx of flu patients, when we saw lots and lots of flu. We have seen some, but it really hasn’t been a monoculture down there. It has been a wide swath of stuff.”

For the past few weeks, Cardinal Glennon has even opened an overflow floor to accommodate large patient volumes.  Peter says in many cases, parents could avoid a trip to the ER if they would just call their own pediatricians first.
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