NBGH patients to receive placement priority

Patients at the North Bay General hospital will receive long-term care priority placement.

Further information is included in the following news release issued by the hospital:

In a move to relieve acute care bed pressures at the North Bay and District Hospital (NBDH), patients awaiting placement to long-term care beds will get first priority on beds that come available in the area.

“Access to acute care beds at the hospital has become seriously compromised due to the growing number of patients in our hospital awaiting discharge to a long-term care home,” stated Nancy Jacko, Vice President of Medicine Care and Mental Health/Addictions Care Centres at NBDH.

“At this time, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MoHLTC) has designated patients in our hospital who are awaiting placement as Category 1A—Crisis Admissions.”

In June, the hospital had eight patients awaiting placement to long term care beds. Recently, that number has jumped to approximately 30 patients who have either completed applications for placement or are in the process of completing these forms.

“Thirty patients is almost the equivalent of a full acute care unit,” said Jacko.

“This creates a backlog for those who have arrived in emergency and are awaiting an inpatient bed, or who are awaiting elective surgeries,” she added.

Currently, the area is experiencing a slow movement into long term care beds. The ministry, the Community Care Access Centre, the long term care homes, and the hospital have been working together to remedy the situation.

By designating those patients awaiting placement in the hospital for long term care beds as ‘Category A1 Crisis Admission’, any long term care beds that become available within the seven long term care facilities in the area are offered to hospital patients.

Patients normally choose their top three locations for placement when in hospital. Under this designation, patients must now prioritize all seven facilities in the area.

When a bed becomes available patients have three choices: move to the offered vacant bed in a long term care facility; return home with care from CCAC (to the extent that it can be provided) and await placement to the facility of their choice; or remain in hospital and pay the provincial accommodation fee of $810 per day.

If the patient agrees to go to the first available bed, he / she also have the option of remaining on the waiting list for their first choice of placement in a long term care bed.

“Right now, people are choosing not to have elective surgeries and staff and physicians are taking vacation time. When the fall arrives, and our surgical services operate at full capacity and the flu begins to hit our community, this situation will escalate and successful placement of patients to long term care beds will become critical to our ability to provide acute care services,” explained Jacko.

“So far, we have been fortunate that Placement Services has been able to offer hospital patients their top choices. However, we know that some patients may be moved to facilities that are not their first choice, and we regret that. But, we are the referral hospital serving this area and we need to ensure we are able to provide the specialty acute services that we deliver so as not to compromise the health of our citizens, which no one finds acceptable,” added Jacko.

The North Bay and District Hospital is a 196-bed Level ‘C’ District Referral hospital providing acute care and specialized services to the North Bay and the surrounding communities.