‘I feel like we\u2019re not treating our elderly people with the respect and dignity they deserve,’ says friend of woman who seems to be falling through gaps in system<\/p>\n
A Newmarket woman with complex medical needs has been repeatedly readmitted to hospital after being sent home, asking questions about whether existing supports are enough for patients who are too ill to manage alone but no longer qualify for acute care.<\/p>\n
Susan Hayden, 70, lives with several health conditions, including congestive heart failure and chronic kidney disease, and struggles with mobility.<\/p>\n
Hayden said she has been an emotional wreck since being discharged from the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe things they say to me and the way they treat me, it makes me feel like nobody is listening,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m very cautious now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hayden\u2019s friend, Karen Baxter, has been trying to ensure she receives the medical care she needs at Southlake Health for the past couple of years.<\/p>\n
In recent months, Hayden was transferred to the emergency department from a rehabilitation facility while experiencing a cardiac event. She was later discharged home but has since returned to the hospital multiple times, Baxter said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was sent back to Southlake at the end of August, and they discharged her, and she was home around 10 days after, and she had to go back to the hospital until Thanksgiving weekend, and she was discharged again, and 42 hours later she had to be admitted again,\u201d Baxter said. \u201cEvery time she leaves the hospital, her health starts to deteriorate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baxter said Hayden\u2019s health is maintained while she is in hospital, but she loses access to constant care once she is discharged.<\/p>\n
Hayden is enrolled in the Southlake@home program, which helps patients recover at home after a hospital stay by coordinating services such as nursing care, rehabilitation and personal support.<\/p>\n
However, Baxter said Hayden spends about 22 hours a day alone at home without medical staff present. Baxter helps when she can, and Hayden\u2019s neighbours also assist, but her mobility challenges and health conditions make being alone for extended periods risky, she said.<\/p>\n
There are plans for Hayden to move into long-term care, but Baxter is concerned about how long she may have to wait for a placement.<\/p>\n
Hayden falls under the alternative level of care (ALC) designation category in which patients who no longer require acute hospital care may be discharged to another setting, even if they continue to have complex medical needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat gap for people like Susan who don\u2019t have good family support and are in that gray area where they\u2019re not acute enough to stay in the hospital but they are really unwell … A lot of services that would be for people who still have mobility would be able to access those, but Susan can\u2019t because of her complex medical issues,” Baxter explained<\/p>\n
Baxter said she questions where people in similar circumstances can turn for the support they need. She said it feels as though they are fighting to keep Hayden under medical supervision and ensure she receives appropriate care.<\/p>\n
She would like to see changes to programs, policies or regulations to recognize patients with complex medical needs who may be at high risk after discharge and ensure plans are in place to support them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we\u2019re not treating our elderly people with the respect and dignity they deserve because these people have worked and they have paid into this system and when they need it, their access is a struggle,\u201d Baxter said.<\/p>\n
In an emailed statement, Southlake Health said it serves some of Ontario\u2019s fastest-growing and aging communities but has not received significant capital investment in recent decades to keep pace with demand.<\/p>\n
The hospital said it has maximized available space for inpatient care but routinely operates over capacity. It works with health system partners to discharge patients to appropriate care settings based on their needs, noted the statement.<\/p>\n
Despite ongoing capacity pressures and limited resources, Southlake Health said it has developed programs such as Southlake@home and its Extensivist Clinic to support patients with complex health needs who no longer require inpatient hospital care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘I feel like we\u2019re not treating our elderly people with the respect and dignity they deserve,’ says friend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392,325771],"class_list":["post-952532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-southlake-healthsusan-haydensouthlakehome-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}