Windsor Regional Hospital is working harder than usual during an aggressive flu season.
The hospital’s two Windsor campuses have been operating past capacity over the last week or so due to a large number of flu cases coming into their emergency departments.
President and CEO David Musyj provided an update on the surge situation during the hospital board’s monthly meeting Thursday.
According to the latest capacity figures issued Friday morning, the Metropolitan campus was operating at 104 % capacity with four patients admitted and waiting for a bed to open up. At the Ouellette campus, it was 95% capacity at the time, with another four patients awaiting a bed.
Musyj says the averages at both campuses have been consistent despite the increased number of patients seeking treatment.
“Between the two campuses we’re averaging about 100%,” says Musyj. “It’s definitely 10% to 15% higher than where we want to be.”
Musyj told the board that the public seems to be heeding the hospital’s advice and are using the emergency room only as a last resort, with patients carrying flu-like symptoms going to their family doctors or an urgent-care centre first.
While it’s important to understand that anyone who goes to an emergency room will be seen, the hospital says its resources are stretched. That includes the 19 surgeries the hospital has had to postpone or cancel since the surge began. Musyj says he understands the human toll postponing surgeries can take and it’s the one thing they try not to do.
“You’re really affecting the 19 individuals’ lives,” says Musyj. “These are scheduled surgeries. They’ve taken time off work, they have family taking time off, and they’ve scheduled this time to have the surgery. So we try to avoid that and then, of course, we try to rebook it as fast as we can.”
Despite the surge putting a strain on the hospital’s ability to provide exemplary care, Musyj says their new command centre has made a difference. Before the centre was operational late last year, the average wait time for an emergency room patient to be admitted and get a bed was 11 hours. Under ideal circumstances, the average wait has been cut to three hours, though Musyj acknowledges that during the surge, wait times are around six hours.