Hospitals in southwestern Ontario have the lowest average wait time for beds in their emergency rooms, but it is a different story for those waiting on long-term care spots.
The Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) had its monthly meeting on Wednesday afternoon with Alternate Level of Care (ALC) and emergency room wait times the main topics of conversation. According to the latest numbers as of December 2018, the local LHIN is leading the province in patients waiting for beds at 8 a.m. averaging 4.4. For comparison, the next lowest is North West at 9.3, then Waterloo at 17.6, and the highest is Toronto Central with an average of 126.5.
Ralph Ganter, CEO of Erie St. Clair LHIN, said the key to success is freeing up beds as quickly as possible.
"If you have the beds available then you get better flow," Ganter said. "We have worked with longterm care homes to make sure that patients don't necessarily go to the emergency department from longterm care homes. We have excellent palliative care services so people don't have to go to the emergency department and at the same time we have service providers, like family care teams, who have adjusted their capacities so people need the emergency department less."
While the local LHIN is leading in emergency room totals, it is a different story for acute Alternate Level of Care (ALC) and post-acute ALC. Ganter described acute ALC as someone in a bed that doesn't fit their needs and post-acute ALC as someone who was moved to a more appropriate bed and no longer needs to be in that one. He gave the example of someone in an acute ALC bed may need long-term care or rehabilitation but can't be moved, while someone waiting to move on from a rehabilitation bed would be considered post-acute.
According to the numbers, Erie St. Clair has the second lowest acute care rate of all the LHINs, which Ganter said was a great thing. However, they have the fifth highest post-acute rates.
"Post-acute numbers are important because we want to have people go from acute go to rehab or complex care and if those beds are blocked then you are getting a lack of flow," Ganter said. "If we get the numbers down then the acute care beds are more available for people who need those services. For people waiting for emergency services got way too high you would see people backed up in the emergency department and as a result, not getting the care that they need."
Ganter added the LHIN is working on developing a new discharge policy and every hospital has completed a 12 Leading ALC Practices Audit Tool. he said each facility went through the 12 leading practices to see if each hospital had them and If not put them in place.
Statistics across all LHIN's regarding the average amount of patients waiting for beds at 8 a.m. February 27, 2019. (Photo by Greg Higgins)
