Quinte Health Care Board briefs

COVID-19

There are no patients suffering from illness due to the COVID-19 coronavirus at any of Quinte Health Care’s four hospitals, however, the pandemic is still taking a toll.

At Tuesday’s meeting of QHC’s Board of Directors Chief of Staff Dr. Colin MacPherson said recent patient volume increases in emergency departments likely has a lot to do with people choosing to delay looking for treatment due to concerns about the virus.

Meanwhile, Dr. MacPherson stressed that people should continue to be vigilant and continue to wear masks, wash hands frequently, and practice physical distancing to keep a second wave of infections from occurring in the region.

QHC AND PRIVATE RETIREMENT RESIDENCE

A relationship between a Belleville retirement residence and Quinte Health Care is working well.

Because of the need to always have vacant hospital beds ready to accommodate a surge in COVID-19 patients QHC has arranged for up to 10 patients to be cared for at Quinte Gardens.

President and CEO of Quinte Health Care Mary Clare Egberts says any patient waiting to return to a long term care home or retirement residence or hoping to find a space has to first serve a 14-day quarantine period and Quinte Gardens is able to provide proper quarantine care, thereby freeing up hospital beds.

The arrangement with Quinte Gardens is being funded by the provincial government and will run until at least the end of September.

FINANCIALS AND SICK TIME

Quinte Health Care is ending its fiscal year with a $388,000 surplus, before building amortization is factored in.

QHC’s Board of Directors heard highlights from an audited financial statement for the year ending March 31 at its meeting Tuesday.

The surplus was reached despite significant changes forced on parts of the budget due to the onset of COVID-19 pandemic in March.

Reducing the amount of sick time among the staff at Quinte Health Care hospitals will be a continuing focus for management in the coming months.

Sick time costs increased by $578,000 in the year ending March 31.

Quinte Health Care’s President Mary Clare Egberts says management isn’t happy with the increase but stresses that calling in sick is not common for most of the staff at QHC.

“We’re concerned about the increase in sick time and have studied it closely. What we’ve found is that we have a small number of staff with complex health issues that require a lot of time off work.”

Strategies are being developed to assist staff in an effort to manage their illnesses with a goal of having them have to take less time off.