Hospital in crisis

The region’s hospital is in an official state of crisis.

A 1A crisis designation has been called for Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. Hospital quality and risk assessment manager Cathy Covino said the designation is called when the hospital is severely compromised due to bed shortages as a result of patients waiting to go into long-term care or in to the community for continued treatment.

"It’s either we’ve canceled surgeries or we have patients in overflow systems," Covino said Wednesday afternoon. "It’s difficult for patients and families."

As of Wednesday, 19 patients were waiting for long-term care facilities, eight for St. Joseph’s and 14 for other community services, such as supportive housing or group homes.

Another seven people are waiting to return home as part of the wait at home program. Covino said waiting for spots to open up in those facilities is what has backed up the hospital.

"Your front door is open but your back doors closed. If we can’t send patients to long-term care at St. Joe’s because there’s a backlog or able to move them to their homes because the community services aren’t there then we have difficulty because we get overrun," Covino said. "It’s a symptom of the system pressures."

St. Joseph’s Care Group president Tracy Buckler said until capacity, resources and community support is increased, an aging population is going to increase pressure to the healthcare system. Also as youth leave the city, seniors sometimes lose the support from family the once had.

"We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg here," Buckler said. "What you might have seen previously is that parents might be cared for by their children and now their children aren’t here."

But Buckler and Covino agree that partnerships between health organizations and daily contact have helped relieve some pressure. Buckler said while solutions might not be found immediately, she’s confident that improvements will be made.

"What we’re all trying to do in the system is achieve some flow," She said. "All of us are in this together…to try and make sure that people are getting the services they need at the right time at the right place."

Making sure people are in the right place and have community supports could allow patients to return to their own home, freeing up valuable beds in long-term facilities.

"There are a lot of people that could probably be managed in their own home," she said. "That’s what we need to do. Nobody wants to be in a long-term care home if they don’t need to be and so those beds need to be available for the people that truly need them…we can never just count beds because we really need to be looking at community supports we need to make sure that people are getting the services in the home to try and prevent if
possible admission to long-term care."