Friday, December 10, 2021
Greater Sudbury - Health Sciences North (HSN) is implementing temporary measures to address over-occupancy levels and sustain critical and acute care services, while preparing for an increase in COVID-19 admissions as case counts hit historic levels in the region.
In the past two weeks, Algoma, Sudbury and Timiskaming public health unit areas each saw record numbers of active cases of COVID-19. These are three of the four current COVID-19 hotspots in the province in terms of active cases of COVID-19 per capita. The 7-day average of active cases in these districts has been rising every single day from 79 on October 19th to 710 on December 8th. HSN expects further increases in COVID-19 admissions, and anticipates new records of active cases in the community, especially as we are getting close to the holiday season.
“This week, HSN had 570 patients, in a facility built for 441 beds,” explained Dominic Giroux, President and CEO of HSN. “This does not include 60 patients receiving care at the Clarion Hotel in partnership with St. Joseph’s Continuing Care Centre. On December 9th, HSN had 17 active cases of COVID-19 and 19 past positive cases, for a total of 36 patients who have had COVID-19. Starting today, we will publish daily on our website the number of past positive cases at HSN, in addition to active cases, so that the community better understands the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on acute care. Most of our COVID-19 patients were not vaccinated, which is frustrating to our clinical teams."
“HSN programs are implementing their surge plans and reviewing all elective procedures and outpatient activity to allow for any potential human resources to be redeployed to core acute and critical care program functions,” explained Dr. John Fenton, Chief of Staff at HSN. “We appreciate the understanding of our patients if appointments are rescheduled. Physicians will also review cases of patients waiting in hospital for testing, imaging or surgery. They may discharge patients who can safely wait in the community to return as outpatients or as called by the HSN surgical program team.”
Effective Friday, December 10th, HSN is closing to acute care referrals from other hospitals for one week. HSN will work with referring hospitals to find alternatives to HSN for non-life and limb referrals. Patients will be redirected to other hospitals within the North East and outside the region if necessary. There are currently 30 hospital patients waiting in the region for admission at HSN, 19 in cardiology.
In 2019, HSN performed 16,400 surgeries. Due to the pandemic, this number declined to 12,900 in 2020 and approximately 14,800 in 2021. This represents 5,100 fewer surgeries in 2020 and 2021 at HSN compared to 2019, leading to patients being in poorer health conditions. The surgical waitlist increased from 3,300 in February 2020 to 5,000 in October 2021 and 4,400 today.
“Exceptional work has happened in the last several months by departments across our organization to sustain care for our patients. Thanks to innovations by our surgical teams, HSN has been able to restore surgical case numbers from 85% of pre-pandemic levels in October to 96% in November; much of this has been from increased utilization of day surgeries and weekend surgical blocks. Unfortunately, this level of surgical activity will not be sustainable due to bed capacity and health human resources pressures,” said Dr. Susan Vokey, Medical Director of HSN’s Surgical Department.
These measures are temporary and will continue to be reviewed and monitored by HSN’s medical and administrative leadership team, while working with partners to mitigate risks.
All patients impacted by these measures will be contacted directly by HSN. There is no need to phone the hospital to check on an appointment.
Twelve HSN patients have already been transferred to the Convalescent Care Program being re-introduced by the Ministry of Long-Term Care at Extendicare York, with more patient transfers planned in the coming days. Newly-approved HSN temporary beds at Amberwood Suites are scheduled to open during the week of December 20th.
HSN is paying particularly close attention to what’s happening on Manitoulin Island in the coming days. There are currently 105 active cases of COVID-19 in Manitoulin District, out of a population of 14,000 on the island.
“The alarming increase in local cases has a direct impact on HSN, including its staff, patients and their families,” said Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, Medical Officer of Health with Public Health Sudbury and Districts. “In addition to focussing our efforts on reducing community transmission, we absolutely need to safeguard our health care system—it's capacity and the workers. We’re asking community members to double down on their COVID-safety efforts, for example, by limiting outings, getting vaccinated, wearing masks, avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated areas, and keeping distance from those not part of their own household. It’s imperative that we monitor ourselves for symptoms and stay home when ill and immediately self-isolate and seek testing to prevent spreading COVID-19 in our community.”
“This marathon has been long and we are not out of the woods yet when it comes to COVID-19,” adds Dr. Rob Lepage, Medical Director and Chief of HSN’s Emergency Department. “We need to implement our surge plans on a temporary basis in order to continue to provide safe quality care and redeploy resources to prepare for additional COVID-19 surge. Our patients are sicker than ever before due to the pandemic. Their average length of stay is longer. So if you want to help our healthcare heroes, do all you can to stay safe and follow advice from Public Health so you don’t get sick. And if you do have to come to the Emergency Department, your wait times may be a bit longer, but know we are here to care for you when you need us. And please be patient and kind with our staff. It’s been a long road for us too.”