When she came in, her son was steady. But it got worse, and so MacLeod talked to a nurse. “The nurse looked at her system and again there were no beds available. She was obviously disappointed. She told me she could tell the system was broken,” McLeod said. The nurse was able to find a bed in another unit and McLeod’s son finally managed to ask for help. But the whole test lasted about eight hours. “When I left the room there were still families out there who were there when I started at three in the morning,” McLeod said. The subject of the long Waiting times plague hospital emergency departments long before the COVID-19 pandemic. In Ontario, patients are treated in the emergency room with high waiting times to be admitted to the hospital. White Coat Black Art26: 30ER Crisis and solutions Healthcare experts say there are a number of solutions that could alleviate the accumulated stress. Some of these solutions will take some time to implement – but they say others could be implemented now. Dr Lindy Samson, chief of staff at CHEO (former Eastern Ontario Pediatric Hospital), says it is important for children and their development that the waiting problem be resolved now, as the effect of reducing overcrowded emergency departments has an impact. in surgeries. “Inpatient medical wards have been full or more than 100 percent in recent weeks. And when that happens, the possibility for children in the emergency department who need to be admitted to the hospital not be able to leave the emergency department is delayed. and get up in the hospital room, “said Samson, who is also a pediatric infectious disease specialist. Sarah McLeod had to wait 10 hours in the emergency room when she gave birth to her son, who was battling an asthma attack. (Submitted by Sarah McLeod)
Mental health care other than ER
Samson says CHEO sees respiratory viruses circulating and an increase in injuries and broken bones that come with children playing outside in the summer. In addition, he says there are large numbers of children and adolescents with acute mental health disorders. And that is where CHEO has started to make a difference. Samson says CHEO is trying to reduce waiting times by removing the need for some children to even go to the emergency department from the start. The hospital has launched a provincial-funded children and youth health group working with more than 60 organizations and providers working in the field of child health, such as family physicians, pediatricians, mental health organizations and providers. home care. Dr. Lindy Samson, Chief of Staff at CHEO, says it is important to address the issue of ER waiting times to avoid reducing the impact of delayed surgery. (CHEO) This team worked together to create a program called One Call, One Click, which is a mental health service that provides easy access to information and control to find out who can offer the best help as quickly as possible, without press the foot on the ER. Samson says it all has to do with “putting children and their families and their needs first and [building] a system around it in a complete way instead of having people go through rings and go to different silos that they design separately “. And Samson says the general approach works. “There is evidence from pre-COVID that this reduces their need to be admitted to the hospital and I believe that visits to the emergency department are the same,” Samson said.
Rapid evaluation zones
Dr. David Petrie says reducing emergency department waiting time is complicated, but it can be done by understanding how a hospital system works as a whole and where the problems lie. Petrie is an emergency physician in Halifax and has been working in emergency medicine for almost 30 years. Halifax Emergency Doctor Dr. David Petrie, says rapid assessment zones can help reduce ER waiting time. (CBC) He says that in Nova Scotia emergency departments, waiting from enrolling to seeing a doctor takes about four hours on average, but can take up to eight hours. One way Petrie suggests improving the system is to make better use of hospital beds. “Ten, 15 years ago, one [emergency department] the bed was one [emergency department] “The bed and the next patient came in, stayed in that bed until his training was over; so there was a period of delay until the decision was made and the patient was either taken upstairs to the hospital bed or discharged,” he said. Petrie. But Petrie believes a quick rating zone could change that. “Bring someone in, do your history and fitness… then get him out of bed where possible, take him to what might be called an internal waiting area and take him to the next patient,” Petrie said. “So instead of one bed being left for four to five hours by one patient, you could move five, six, seven, eight patients in that single bed.”
Responsibility and coordination
Petrie also suggests improving accountability. He says that many times, different departments do not cooperate and resolving their own issues will create problems for others. For example, an inpatient ward with a long queue may leave patients in the emergency department. But Petrie says this can be handled responsibly across the healthcare sector. “More specifically… some of the most effective effects on [keeping people moving through the ER] “They have to do with the obligation of people to be accountable to specific flow targets,” Petrie said. “And that has to do with the length of stay. It has to do with meeting the expected kind of exit time, a number of things that can make a difference.” Both Petrie and Samson agree that more collaboration and teamwork across all health care departments can also help with the current issue. “We all need to be committed to our patients and the system and we all need to work beyond those limits,” Petrie said. “That’s the only way we can get ourselves out of it.” Sarah McLeod’s recent trip to an emergency room in Calgary lasted more than eight hours, but she said it could have been much worse. Doctors say online sorting, fast-track zones and greater responsibility could help reduce ER waiting times. (Submitted by Sarah McLeod) Such are the differences Sarah McLeod said she hopes to see, so if she needs to take her son back to the emergency department, she will get help sooner. “I think we, as citizens, as parents, deserve to know what the waiting times in hospitals are and why they are so bad and what can we do to correct them?” said McLeod. “I hope that going forward I will not have to go back unless it is incredibly serious.” Produced by Colleen Ross, Amina Zafar and Stephanie Dubois.
