Hospitals facing ER crisis for patients
Bed shortage 'nightmare'
By Deirdre Healey
The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 18, 2006)
Hamilton Health Sciences is poised to cancel surgeries across the city as an outbreak of Norwalk flu has left emergency rooms 20 deep in patients waiting for beds.
People with shortness of breath, stomach pains and other non-critical illnesses have been forced to wait in parked ambulances for hours as city hospitals struggle to find space for them.
The emergency room backlogs are having a ripple effect on ambulance response times since paramedics must wait with a patient until a nurse is available.
Henderson Hospital has been hit hardest, with up to 40 patients lying in stretchers in crowded emergency rooms and hallways as staff try and find space in the older, cramped facility.
"It's a nightmare," said Pat MacDonald, Local 70 president of the Ontario Nurses' Association. "Henderson is worse than others. Patients are sleeping on stretchers for days."
MacDonald said she has never heard of the wait for emergency beds reaching as high as 40 patients.
"It's never been perfect, but in the past couple of weeks it has gotten a lot worse."
Dr. Jennifer Everson, Hamilton Health Sciences' vice- president of medical, said all three emergency rooms -- Henderson, Hamilton General and McMaster University Medical Centre -- have experienced as many as 20 people at a time waiting for beds over the past two weeks.
"That's higher than any emergency room would like to handle or is built to handle," Everson said.
"It's been awful throughout the whole city. It's not good care."
An aging population has left Hamilton with a recent shortage in Alternative Level of Care (ALC) beds. These beds are typically filled by older people with chronic illnesses, she said. As a result, other beds in the hospitals are being used by these patients.
The arrival of the Norwalk flu virus at the beginning of April has exacerbated the bed shortage.
Elderly patients admitted with the virus are unable to return to long-term care facilities and instead must wait in hospital beds until they are healthy, she added.
This overall shortage of beds slows down the progression of admitting someone through emergency and moving them into a specific ward.
Henderson is struggling more than the other local hospitals because it is older and has less capacity for emergency patients, she said.
Hospital staff are looking at ways to relieve the pressure on beds at all city emergency hospitals and one option is to cancel surgeries.
"We need to open up what- ever beds we can," she said.
"Cancelling surgeries is one option when you have too many patients. You have to make sure the emergency room patients are dealt with as soon as possible."
They are looking into working with the long-term care facilities to see if there is a way to have elderly patients with the Norwalk virus return to the facilities, she said.
They are also working with St. Joseph's Healthcare to take some patients.
The backlog has left emergency nurses in HHS hospitals struggling to "keep pace" and paramedics spending hours waiting to transfer patients instead of responding to calls, MacDonald said.
Paramedics must wait with a patient until an available emergency room nurse can attend to them, said Mario Posteraro, president of OPSEU Local 256 representing paramedics in Hamilton and Brantford.
In recent weeks, paramedics have been waiting up to three hours with patients at the hospital, Posteraro said.
"The delays in emergency rooms are affecting response times," he said. "When you are losing 25 to 30 per cent of your resources, that is a significant problem."
The bed shortage comes on the heels of HHS announcing it was closing 28 beds to balance the books in time for the April 1 provincial deadline, reducing the total number to 1,036.
However, MacDonald said the beds set to be closed are being used because of the backlog.
Norwalk virus infection is an intestinal illness that often occurs in outbreaks and is contracted by swallowing food or water that has been contaminated with stool from an infected person.
Symptoms often begin suddenly and may include diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, headache, fever, chills and sore throat.
The illness usually lasts one to two days and is generally not serious. However, dehydration can occur in very young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.
dhealey@thespec.com
905-526-3468
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NA...6&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1014656511815
Bed shortage 'nightmare'
By Deirdre Healey
The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 18, 2006)
Hamilton Health Sciences is poised to cancel surgeries across the city as an outbreak of Norwalk flu has left emergency rooms 20 deep in patients waiting for beds.
People with shortness of breath, stomach pains and other non-critical illnesses have been forced to wait in parked ambulances for hours as city hospitals struggle to find space for them.
The emergency room backlogs are having a ripple effect on ambulance response times since paramedics must wait with a patient until a nurse is available.
Henderson Hospital has been hit hardest, with up to 40 patients lying in stretchers in crowded emergency rooms and hallways as staff try and find space in the older, cramped facility.
"It's a nightmare," said Pat MacDonald, Local 70 president of the Ontario Nurses' Association. "Henderson is worse than others. Patients are sleeping on stretchers for days."
MacDonald said she has never heard of the wait for emergency beds reaching as high as 40 patients.
"It's never been perfect, but in the past couple of weeks it has gotten a lot worse."
Dr. Jennifer Everson, Hamilton Health Sciences' vice- president of medical, said all three emergency rooms -- Henderson, Hamilton General and McMaster University Medical Centre -- have experienced as many as 20 people at a time waiting for beds over the past two weeks.
"That's higher than any emergency room would like to handle or is built to handle," Everson said.
"It's been awful throughout the whole city. It's not good care."
An aging population has left Hamilton with a recent shortage in Alternative Level of Care (ALC) beds. These beds are typically filled by older people with chronic illnesses, she said. As a result, other beds in the hospitals are being used by these patients.
The arrival of the Norwalk flu virus at the beginning of April has exacerbated the bed shortage.
Elderly patients admitted with the virus are unable to return to long-term care facilities and instead must wait in hospital beds until they are healthy, she added.
This overall shortage of beds slows down the progression of admitting someone through emergency and moving them into a specific ward.
Henderson is struggling more than the other local hospitals because it is older and has less capacity for emergency patients, she said.
Hospital staff are looking at ways to relieve the pressure on beds at all city emergency hospitals and one option is to cancel surgeries.
"We need to open up what- ever beds we can," she said.
"Cancelling surgeries is one option when you have too many patients. You have to make sure the emergency room patients are dealt with as soon as possible."
They are looking into working with the long-term care facilities to see if there is a way to have elderly patients with the Norwalk virus return to the facilities, she said.
They are also working with St. Joseph's Healthcare to take some patients.
The backlog has left emergency nurses in HHS hospitals struggling to "keep pace" and paramedics spending hours waiting to transfer patients instead of responding to calls, MacDonald said.
Paramedics must wait with a patient until an available emergency room nurse can attend to them, said Mario Posteraro, president of OPSEU Local 256 representing paramedics in Hamilton and Brantford.
In recent weeks, paramedics have been waiting up to three hours with patients at the hospital, Posteraro said.
"The delays in emergency rooms are affecting response times," he said. "When you are losing 25 to 30 per cent of your resources, that is a significant problem."
The bed shortage comes on the heels of HHS announcing it was closing 28 beds to balance the books in time for the April 1 provincial deadline, reducing the total number to 1,036.
However, MacDonald said the beds set to be closed are being used because of the backlog.
Norwalk virus infection is an intestinal illness that often occurs in outbreaks and is contracted by swallowing food or water that has been contaminated with stool from an infected person.
Symptoms often begin suddenly and may include diarrhea, vomiting, cramps, headache, fever, chills and sore throat.
The illness usually lasts one to two days and is generally not serious. However, dehydration can occur in very young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.
dhealey@thespec.com
905-526-3468
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NA...6&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1014656511815