St. Louis Children's Hospital erected tents on Tuesday, September 29, to alleviate overcrowding in their emergency department. The two tents, set up in a hospital parking garage, accomodate up to 20 children each.

Hospital officials say that only children with non-life-threatening conditions will be seen in the tents -- conditions such as ear pain, sore throat, cough, or congestion.

The hospital's current ER patient load is 30 percent above normal, due in part to flu cases but also in part to seasonal asthma, say officials.

St. Louis Children's Hospital is not the first facility to erect tents to handle ER overflow. Hospitals in Memphis, Austin, Huntsville, and elsewhere have adopted similar strategies.

Links of interest:

• Tents go up at (St. Louis) Children's Hospital for potential influx of flu cases
• McTriage: Hospitals use drive-thrus for swine flu
• Memphis hospital erects tent to handle flu
• Tent city at Austin hospital opens to treat children with flu symptoms
• Huntsville hospital sets up overflow flu ER