CEDAR RAPIDS – The H1N1 flu is attacking eastern Iowa. Mercy Medical Center and St. Luke's Hospital report their emergency rooms had record-breaking numbers of patients this weekend because of the flu.

In addition, fourteen Cedar Rapids public schools had more than ten percent of their student body absent with the flu on Monday. School officials can't remember the last time that many students stayed home sick.

"We've not seen this before,” St. Luke’s Hospital emergency services director Sandi McIntosh said.

Mercy Medical Center typically serves 125 emergency room patients a day for a variety of ailments. On Sunday, a record-breaking 183 people needed emergency care. By 9:30 p.m. on Monday, the hospital had treated 178 emergency patients.

St. Luke's Hospital averages 156 emergency patients a day for various medical conditions. On Saturday, the hospital treated 208 people, which also set a record for the hospital, if you don’t count visits during last year’s flood. By 9:30 p.m. on Monday, the hospital had treated 185 patients.

"We knew this was probably going to happen, so we've been taking precautionary measures,” McIntosh said.

Mercy Medical Center’s emergency department director Matthew Aucutt said, "It always concerns us when we have that many people coming to the emergency department, but we plan for that and we're staffed for that."

Doctors think fears of the flu have prompted many people to seek immediate care that might be unnecessary.

"There are some people coming in that, in the ideal world, if they just stayed home, that would be the best,” McIntosh said.

Hospitals are not admitting record-numbers of patients. Instead, doctors send people home unless they have severe symptoms.

Aucutt said, "People that have difficulty breathing. People that look like they're having changes in color, changes in their mental state. People that are vomiting or have diarrhea to the point where they're getting dehydrated” are most at risk for serious, life-threatening complications caused by the flu.

Health department officials say the H1N1 spreads quickly because most people are not vaccinated. Plus, manufacturers have only produced a limited supply of the H1N1 vaccine. Therefore, people have had trouble getting the injection. Once more vaccine becomes available, Linn County Public Health plans to organize clinics to allow large amounts of people get vaccinated.

In the meantime, health officials say a few simple steps could help keep you healthy. "Clean your hands. Cover your cough or sneeze,” Linn County Public Health Director Curtis Dickson said.

St. Luke's and Mercy instituted new policies on Monday that ban children from visiting the hospital and limit the number of adult visitors in a patient's room. It's all part of an effort to stop the flu from spreading.

Both hospitals have doctors and nurses on stand-by, ready to respond if emergency room numbers climb even higher.