Pandemic dominates Quinte Health Care board meeting

PANDEMIC: NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained health care staff and facilities everywhere including
at Quinte Health Care’s hospitals.

At a Quinte Health Care board meeting Tuesday, member Patrick Johnston said the first wave cancelled elective surgeries and caused many people to not bother showing up to hospital when they really should have.

However, Johnston says the pandemic also forced positive changes to health care such as virtual consultations with patients, which proved very effective, especially for psychiatry.

“Other examples, ED (emergency department) doctors were able to undertake virtual assessments to redirect patients who otherwise might have come to emergency.”

Johnston also said the pandemic had a positive consequence in that it deepened relationships between QHC and public health staff and paramedics.

SECOND WAVE PLANNING LONG UNDERWAY

A lot was learned from the first wave of COVID-19 by staff and management at Quinte Health Care’s hospitals.

And as the QHC Board of Directors learned Tuesday, planning has been long underway for a second wave which most believe is now underway.

Chief Nursing Officer Carol Smith Romeril says staff is preparing to add 24 extra beds for covid patients and contacts are being made with facilities in the wider community, such as long term care homes, to house some patients if hospitals are overwhelmed.

Smith Romeril says surgeries won’t be cancelled in a second wave so staff flexibility will be at a premium.

RECRUITING A PRIORITY

Not surprisingly the COVID-19 pandemic has created more of a demand for doctors and other medical professionals just about everywhere.

To that end, Quinte Health Care management has been working hard to recruit new family doctors and specialists for its hospitals.

The effort has paid off as in the past six months 26 newly credentialed doctors have signed on with QHC.

President Mary Clare Egberts says QHC is fortunate to welcome residents who finish their education in a practical way in local hospitals.

“It’s absolutely critical that QHC retain its affiliation with Queen’s and do as much teaching as possible because that’s what helps us to fill our specialities.”

Meanwhile, a recent Nursing and Personal Support Worker job fair resulted in nine people being hired and more prospects waiting in the wings.

BUDGET TAKES A HIT

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t been good news for Quinte Health Care’s budget.

QHC’s Board of Directors learned Tuesday that in the four months ending in July the organization is running a $1.6 million deficit.

The reasons for the shortfall are increasing costs due to the pandemic and lower revenues for things such as parking and technical fees from OHIP for such things as diagnostic testing.

QHC President Mary Clare Egberts says it’s possible revenues could be increased dramatically if there’s enough staff to ramp up diagnostic testing.

“If we’re able to increase our hours in diagnostic testing and try to do an increase that would recover some of those lost revenues and the government has already put aside I think it’s around $700 million.”

QHC’s board heard that if the pandemic hadn’t occurred, its finances would have been in “good shape”.

PARTNERSHIPS AND CREATIVE THINKING

Staff and management at Quinte Health Care are teaming up with a group of family physicians in the wider community to better serve people with chronic respiratory conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

QHC Vice-President Jeff Hohenkerk.

“try to do is open up a respiratory clinic so thereafter we can divert our patients who do have chronic upper respiratory conditions away from primary care and away from the ED (emergency department) so they can be assessed making sure that they don’t have covid.”

Meanwhile, QHC is working on being able to process test swabs for hospital staff at the lab at QHC BGH to speed up the turnaround time from the current 3 to 4 days to within 24 hours. Hospital staff will go to the Assessment Centre for the test, but instead of sending it to the lab in Kingston, it will be processed in house.

SEISMIC CHANGE IN HEALTH CARE NEEDED

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on how much work must be done to the province’s health care system to modernize it.

In a landmark report the Ontario Hospital Association says the “new normal” in hospital settings has clearly shown the current ways of doing business just aren’t good enough.

The chair of Quinte Health Care’s Board of Directors David MacKinnon says he’s glad the OHA recognizes that there must be a huge investment in new technologies.

“Our virtual consultations are now 10 times what they were before the pandemic broke out and further progress of that kind will really require massive investments in things like H.I.S. to move forward.”

Virtual consultations with patients has proven very effective because doctors’ time isn’t wasted when patients don’t show up for appointments.

Some of Quinte Health Care’s Board of Directors in a ZOOM meeting September 29/20. (Photo: Quinte News)