Seasonal illnesses may be slowing down, but Windsor Regional Hospital is still reporting capacity issues.
The health system reported stable numbers of patients with respiratory illnesses on its two campuses during its monthly board meeting Tuesday evening. However, the hospital still reported both the Metropolitan and Ouellette campuses operating over capacity and patients waiting for treatment.
"Even though we've had a decrease in our respiratory presentations, we're still seeing a high admission rate and high acuity in our population," said WRH Chief Nursing Executive Karen Riddell.
"Met and Ouellette were running at 107 and 108 per cent occupancy."
The availability of beds for patients who have been admitted has also remained an issue. As of Thursday, there were 23 "admit-no-bed patients" at the Met Campus and 28 at the Ouellette campus.
WRH issued a warning on its official website Thursday evening about high wait times in the emergency room, with five-and-a-half hours being reported as of 6:30 p.m. at both Met and Ouellette.
Despite the remaining concerns about capacity, encouraging news remains about the number of patients at WRH for COVID-19, influenza, and RSV. The most dramatic drop concerned patients with the flu, with only one patient admitted in February, down from a whopping 116 in November 2022.
While concern remains about COVID-19, there has also been a decline in those cases. In February, the hospital treated 51 patients for COVID-19, down from 85 in January. Numbers have also been stable for patients admitted for other issues but were also being treated for the virus.
The hospital also reported a drop in the number of alternative-level-of-care (ALC) patients, who are in hospital but no longer require the services or treatment. As of 10 a.m. Thursday, there were 16 ALC patients at an average of 14 days per patient. That is a significant decline from September 2022, when there were 33 ALC patients for a combined 913 days, an average of 27 days per patient.