THUNDER BAY – The regional hospital continues to run overcapacity even after 32 patients have been moved off-site to a transitional care unit at Hogarth Riverview Manor, though the patient volume seems to be slowing slightly.
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre has been operating in a state of surge capacity – formerly known as gridlock – since late December, at its worst caring for 84 additional patients over its 375-bed funded capacity.
To alleviate some of the pressure, the hospital partnered with the North West Local Health Integration Network and St. Joseph’s Care Group in January to transfer 32 alternate level of care patients to an unused wing of the Hogarth Riverview Manor long-term care home.
Hospital executive vice-president Rhonda Crocker Ellacott said temporary beds had been installed throughout the facility, including in the back of surgical daycare, ambulatory care, pediatric outpatient and recovery units during peak volume.
“We’ve been able to close many of our overcapacity spaces at the regional health sciences centre,” Crocker Ellacott said. “We still have in our census 434 patients (Friday). We are still in a state of surge.”
Prior to the establishment of the transitional care unit, the hospital had 91 alternate level of care patients under its roof.
Those patients, whose medical needs don’t require acute care, were the priority to be moved.
“We looked at that population and looked at the most stable and predictable group, which typically was the patients who were waiting for alternate level of care at long-term care facilities,” Crocker Ellacott said.
The arrangement to host the transitional care unit at Hogarth Riverview Manor extends to the end of March. Crocker Ellacott said discussions are ongoing to identify a solution for after that deadline, with the intent to develop a plan that benefits both patient care and the local health care system.
Even with the hospital in surge capacity there is no shortage of new patients coming in the door, she added.
“(The emergency room) is as busy as it has been and we’re continuing to see an influx of febrile respiratory illness and many of those are confirmed as influenza A,” Crocker Ellacott said.
The flu is causing problems throughout the facility, with five wards being declared in outbreak.
“It started earlier than we had anticipated and there were a lot of cases. We’re still seeing lots of cases so it hasn’t gone away yet. Sometimes we get a second wave of flu in March,” acting chief executive officer Mark Henderson said.
“We’re definitely not out of the woods by any means. The best thing people can do is not come to the hospital and if they do make sure they wash their hands on the way in and out.”
The hospital has implemented restrictions of one person at a time to visit patients in the emergency room and a two-person limit for patients who have been admitted. As well, he urged people to not bring children to visit.
