Saskatoon Health Region slowly reduces 'hallway medicine'
CEO says more work is needed to address overcapacity
The Saskatoon Health Region says a plan to address a recent massive overload of patients at Royal University and St Paul's hospitals is working.
On February 3rd the Saskatoon Health Region launched the first region-wide, employee-inspired, patient flow process improvement initiative: The Better Every Day 14-Day Challenge.
The goals included eliminating temporary bed pods and long waits for patients admitted to the hospital from the emergency room and to put in place a consistent admission and discharge process.
Emergency room nurse Sylvie Belanger said the changes are allowing her to spend more time treating her patients.
"I was able to deal with acute situations that were coming in and put them in the bed where they needed to be seen and be treated right away," Belanger said.
In the past two weeks the region saw a decrease in the number of temporary beds from 112 to 59. There was also a decrease in the number of patients admitted to hospital but who continue to wait for a bed in the emergency room.
The target was to have 85 per cent of patients admitted to hospital from the emergency room in the right bed within five hours. By the 15th day the target was met 84 per cent of the time at St Paul's Hospital and 74 per cent at Royal University Hospital. Prior to the challenge the target was met 40 percent of the time.
"We still have more work to be done," said Dan Florizone, President and CEO of the Saskatoon Health Region.
"We'll continue through those 90 days to be able to fix in place the systems, the means and the methods, in addition to a new way of continually seeking input from those in the know, those who are delivering care."
The health region says it will now start working on creating an early warning system that will signal areas where patient waits are increasing. Officials say the forecasting will help them address the problem sooner.
Meantime, Faye Tomlinson, a clinical coordinator for emergency, says the challenge has improved patient care and staff morale in the emergency room.
"It's too good to be true. It all seems rather surreal," Tomlinson said. "Whether this will continue or not everybody just kind of waits."