A heavy cold and flu season coupled with a spike in slips and falls, heart attacks and injuries is putting significant pressure on the Health Sciences North emergency department
If it’s not a real emergency, your wait at the Health Sciences North emergency department could be a longer than usual one.
Patients who are already experience long wait times at the hospital emergency department could experience even longer ones this week as the hospital says it’s dealing with a spike in demand due to a heavy cold and flu season, combined with a jump in injuries from slips and falls, heart attacks, and more, HSN said in a news release.
Recently, by 7 a.m. the emergency department has 40 patients waiting for beds, about double the norm.
HSN said more than 20 flu, COVID-19 and respiratory outbreaks have been declared in the community at group and long-term care facilities. Two influenza outbreaks are ongoing at HSN, one on the Respiratory Care Unit on 6 South and one on the Cardiology Unit on 8 North.
The hospital advises that if your cold or flu symptoms are severe — meaning trouble breathing, chest pain, severe dehydration, confusion or a returning fever — head to the hospital. Otherwise, see your primary care provider or a walk-in clinic. If you are unsure, call or message Health811 for free medical advice.
Additional pressure is also being put on the hospital, HSN said, due to its position as the specialized trauma centre for the northeast.
“HSN provides specialized emergency, surgical, cardiac and trauma care to people from Parry Sound to James Bay, from the Quebec border to Northwestern Ontario,” the news release states. “HSN is also seeing more patients with serious conditions, including heart attacks, strokes, traumatic injuries due to vehicle crashes and other major injuries.”
There are no changes to visiting hours at the hospital at this time. Visitors are encouraged to wear a mask and clean their hands frequently if they are feeling unwell.
If you are heading to the hospital, HSN has an estimated wait time page which you can check to see how busy the emergency department is before visiting. Find that page here.
While HSN provides estimated wait times, Sault Area Hospital has made a virtual emergency room permanent. The service allows patients heading to emergency to queue up virtually at home, only heading to the hospital when they receive a message to head to the hospital for triage or care.
The virtual waiting room has seen the 90th percentile wait time for initial physician assessment improved from 5.8 hours to 2.7 hours, and from 7.7 hours to 4.0 hours for total length of stay under the project.
Moving forward, Sault Area Hospital plans to keep the Virtual Home Waiting Room in place – which accommodated up to 10 patients per day in its pilot phase – and gradually expand it.
Besides lowering wait times, the Sault hospital said the virtual waiting room has eased the workload of hospital staff, improved patient flow and reduced congestion in the emergency department.