Number of children taken between Overburdened Hospitals of Ontario The triple threat of the respiratory virus reached new heights in November as pressure on the province’s health care system.
new data from orangewhich facilitates a portion of patient transfers in Ontario, showed the number of children being moved between hospitals for respiratory illnesses in November was the highest level since 2018 – with the health minister asking hospitals to “balance the load”. To do” resulted in working together.
“There are times when a high incidence rate is going to happen in a particular part of the province,” Minister Sylvia Jones said on Thursday. “The ability to transfer patients when needed to other facilities that don’t see that surge on that particular day is a really important way for us to balance the load in Ontario as we experience these surges. “
The continued pressure on emergency departments across Ontario, however, could force the province to start moving patients south of the border – and planning for that worst-case scenario is already underway.
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Data provided to Global News by Orange showed the upward trend began as early as July, when about 50 pediatric patients with the respiratory illness had to be shuttled between provincial hospitals.
By November, Ornge found itself transferring about 140 pediatric patients with the respiratory illness to other hospitals in an effort to find suitable open beds for care.
The increased volume is 150 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels.
,We’ve seen this with older adults, but not with pediatrics,” said Dr. Michael Leavell said. “This is the first time we’ve seen such a significant amount with pediatrics.”
A graph in Orange shows a sharp increase in pediatric transfers during November.
orange
The spike in volumes encountered by Orange represents a partial view of overall patient transfers in Ontario. Patients can also be transferred by the hospital’s pediatric teams and by local ambulance services, which Dr. are experiencing a 50 percent increase during the current boom, Levell said.
“sure [hospitals] There will be a capacity crunch, just the number of beds, and so we moved patients to existing beds where there is capacity,” Dr. Leavell said. “It is much easier to move a patient to an existing bed than it is to try to build new beds in an existing facility.”
On Thursday, the province had just 11 pediatric ICU beds available across the province, while Dr. More than 100 pediatric patients over the age of 14 were being cared for in adult ICU wards, Leavell said.
While patients are, in some cases, being transferred within cities, other patients are traveling greater distances to find open beds.
,For example, we’ll see a patient who would normally be flown to Hamilton or Toronto is now being moved to Kingston,” Dr. Leavell said. “We’re moving some northern patients to the south. Huh.”
Yet the healthcare system is now preparing for a worst-case scenario, a total exhaustion of available pediatric beds.
Orange is now looking to extend flight certificates to be able to fly into the United States, as the province potentially relies on existing relationships with hospitals in border states to help manage the load.
“Hospitals that are on our borders, such as in upstate New York as well as eastern Michigan, would be a natural fit,” Dr. Leavell cautioned that the province has not yet entered into any formal ones. Agreement for any transfer to the US
The rising number of respiratory-related cases in children threatens to overwhelm pediatric hospitals. In the second week of November, Toronto’s Sick Kids Hospital announced it was reducing surgeries.
President Dr. Ronald Kohn said the hospital had “no choice” but to prioritize “urgent, emergency and time-sensitive surgeries” until November 14, in order to preserve critical care beds for the influx of patients Could
The hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Lennox Huang, told Global News at the time that the province was dealing with a “pediatric crisis” that he had not experienced in his 18-year medical career.
“It’s filling every single ward in the hospital,” Dr. Huang said. “Our ICU is pretty much right at capacity. We’re seeing this in our emergency department and our general pediatrics floors as well.”
Dr. Jesse Papenberg, who works at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, said the last week of November also saw the highest number of pediatric hospitalizations in a single week in the past decade.
About 1,000 children are hospitalized in a typical flu season. Due to pandemic public health measures, he said that last season saw only 400 and that there had been no seasons before.
By the end of November, more than 700 children had been hospitalized with the H3N2 strain of flu, which usually hits older adults harder. But the season could continue until March or April, Papenberg said of the unexpected pandemic.
In December, the Red Cross was called upon to help the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), which Premier Doug Ford praised as a “thinking outside the box” hospital.
Despite the overwhelming situation, the province’s health minister urged parents not to think twice about using Ontario’s emergency departments.
“As a caregiver, as a parent, if you feel you need to take your child to an emergency … absolutely do it,” Jones said Thursday.
With files from The Canadian Press
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