The extreme pressure on the emergency department at the Regional Health Sciences Centre appears to be easing, but only slightly.
Hospital spokesperson Lisa Beck stresses the volumes remain high. Beck says so far this week there has been an average of 270 patients coming through compared to over 300 last week.
The hospital official adds, out of the patients who have come through the ER this week about 40 had to be admitted.
She says “everybody in the hospital has been working extremely hard at moving patients” and that “all of the floors have optimized every available space and all of the available beds in the hospital to accommodate those that require admissions.”
Last week the hospital was in what they call surge capacity, with a 99% occupancy rate. They reported over 60 patients were admitted to the Hospital’s Transitional Care Unit at Hogarth Riverview Manor.
They said a large contributing factor to the overcrowding was the number of Alternate Level of Care, or ALC, patients who were waiting to be discharged to long-term care, or home care settings.
