The CEO for the Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance says the crisis that hospital emergency departments and in-patient programs have been dealing with for the last few weeks appears to be easing up a little.
Andrew Williams says the flu was one factor that contributed to higher than usual volumes in hospital emergency departments and in-patient programs but other factors included respiratory infections and things like availability of resources in the community to discharge patients. Williams says Alliance hospital staff as well as those of their community partners and patients and their families deserve a lot of credit for doing what had to be done and recognizing the situation and being patient.
Williams adds the break is giving them the opportunity to analyze both internally and with their partners what worked and what could be improved. Williams points out in any crisis like all of the hospitals recently experienced the hospitals, home care and other community partners all work together and will continue to work towards coordinating efforts in the future.
“Respiratory infections are also playing a role, availability of resources in the community to discharge have been a challenge for all of us, so there's a lot of things that are contributing to it and we're working through now, internally and then with our partners," says Williams. “In this particular case it happened to be our emergency departments and our in-patient programs. But you know we need to bring all of the players together and work collaboratively because we all have a role to play in the system working well and when we can help each other during times of crisis it's only better for our patients and their families.”