News

Southlake Regional Health Centre
To Provide Additional Bed Capacity
For Patients Awaiting Placement
To A Long-Term Care Facility

Newmarket, March 30, 2009 – Southlake Regional Health Centre is on the mark and ready to build additional bed capacity to accommodate patients who no longer require hospital care, but who continue to stay in hospital while awaiting transfer to a long-term care facility. These patients are known as “Alternate Level of Care” (ALC) patients and the impact of their ‘holding pattern’ is felt through shortages of acute care beds and extended wait times in the hospital’s busy emergency department. Now, the Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), which funds healthcare services, has agreed in principle to commit funding to Southlake to build and staff a 27-bed Interim Care Unit for ALC patients.

Escalating numbers of ALC patients have presented a challenge for healthcare institutions located in high growth areas to maintain adequate patient flow and enable those with acute care needs to receive services. Recently, a report from the Ontario Hospital Association indicated that throughout the Central LHIN, nearly one-quarter of acute beds are occupied by ALC patients. Southlake data shows that for 2008, an average of almost 35% of medical/surgical and rehabilitation beds were occupied by ALC patients.  “Not only are these people being forced to exist in a state of limbo when they are already feeling vulnerable,” says Dan Carriere, President & CEO, Southlake Regional Health Centre, “but the trickle-down effect that ALC patients have on the hospital can be seen in just about every department, and especially in emergency and on the medical units.” The concept of incorporating interim beds at the hospital is one that Southlake considered two years ago. “At that time, however, there was no funding model that would allow us to do that,” adds Carriere.

Recently, though, in an effort to reduce wait times in Emergency rooms throughout the province, the Ontario Government empowered the Central LHIN to direct Aging At Home funding to the reduction of ALC patients in hospitals. While still awaiting final funding approval from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, optimism is high that the Interim Care Unit at Southlake will fall within this funding incentive and move ahead.

Under the proposal, in partnership with Southlake Residential Care Village (Southlake Village), the Interim Care Unit at Southlake, consisting of twenty interim long-term care beds and seven convalescent beds, will be established on the 5th Floor of Southlake Village, adjacent to the hospital.

The benefits of having this unit are numerous and include:

• Employment during construction phase: Approximately 30 to 35 full-time construction jobs will be created to convert the identified space to long-term care and convalescent care standards.
  
  
• Approximately 25 full-time nursing, allied health, and support staff positions will be created to support the new Interim Care Unit.
  
  
• Currently, patients awaiting long-term care placement are transferred to the first available nursing home bed where their care needs can be safely met until a room becomes available in their chosen facility. At times, this can displace elderly patients up to an hour away from their family and loved ones. Southlake’s Interim Care Unit will serve this need and enable patients to stay closer to their family while awaiting a permanent placement.
  
  
• The Interim Bed Unit will reduce the number of ALC patients at Southlake by creating space for acutely ill people to receive a hospital bed more quickly. This will come as welcomed relief for patients waiting a significant number of  hours in the Emergency Department for admission to a patient care unit and for the nursing staff working on ‘over-census’ units—patient care units whereby patient lounges have been modified to serve as temporary patient rooms.

“If all goes according to plan, we anticipate that renovations to Southlake Village’s 5th floor to begin in April and that by July we will be welcoming patients to our new unit,” says Carriere. “Not only will this be a welcome facility for those patients, but I am really looking forward to seeing that ripple effect move in the other direction!”

On a daily basis, up to 40 patients are admitted to Southlake for an average length of stay of 7.78 days for medicine patients and 5.44 days for surgical patients. Of the Hospital’s 374 inpatient beds, currently up to 50 beds a day are being occupied by ALC patients with an average length of stay of 16.4 days. Finding solutions to address the ALC crisis is a high priority for Southlake, the Central LHIN, and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

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