WRHA claims wait time reduction strategy working

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This article was published 17/04/2018 (2714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If reduced emergency department wait times and fewer seniors lingering in hospital for a personal-care home placement are any indication, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says its consolidation strategies appear to be working.

The WRHA released its preliminary, year-end monthly wait-times report for 2017-18 on Tuesday, showing an overall improvement in wait times since the region began implementing consolidation strategies in October.

The median wait time was 1.62 hours in 2017-18, an improvement from 1.93 hours in 2016-17, according to the report.

“We are very pleased that we made a 16 per cent improvement in those wait times,” said Krista Williams, WRHA chief health operations officer of acute care. “We implemented big changes with consolidation.

“We are very pleased with the work our staff have done to improve those wait times during that time of change,” she told reporters at a gathering at WRHA downtown offices on Main Street. “They are critical in making these improvements happen.”

On top of the changes, there’s been an increase in the number of patients going to hospital with flu and more people who are much sicker, she said. The region has experienced an eight per cent increase in ambulance arrivals (roughly 10 a day) and a nine per cent increase in admissions (close to nine a day) in the last few months, Williams said.

That’s resulted in a “bump” in hospital wait times, she said. In March, there was a 2.02-hour wait, compared with 1.98 hours in March 2017.

The Manitoba Nurses Union said blaming the latest increase in monthly wait times on the flu is “misleading.”

In a statement issued Tuesday, the labour group said the WRHA’s changes “are not working as planned,” and that’s why wait times rose in March.

“We have been hearing for months that patient volumes have increased beyond the WRHA’s anticipated levels, emergency rooms are frequently crowded, and nurses are stretched thin,” the union said. “At St. Boniface (Hospital), nurses are still working unprecedented levels of mandatory overtime that began after the changes were implemented.”

The WRHA said it doesn’t track mandatory overtime, but the number of voluntary OT hours staff are working is down to 284,814 across the region in 2017-18, from 402,453 hours in 2016-17.

“We recognize we will never be able to eliminate overtime or mandated hours entirely due to unexpected events related to patient volumes or in the lives of our staff, but (the authority will) continue to endeavour to find ways to reduce the need for overtime hours, and use staff mandating as a last resort,” a WRHA spokeswoman said in an email response to a Free Press inquiry.

There is still much work to be done, Williams told reporters, noting the need for more “sub-acute” or non-emergency beds in the health-care system.

There are at least 35 patients occupying beds in in-patient units at Winnipeg’s acute care hospitals (Grace, St. Boniface and Health Sciences Centre) who would be more appropriately cared for in a sub-acute setting, Williams said.

The addition of units at Concordia Hospital and Seven Oaks General Hospital in the next phase of consolidation will more than triple the current sub-acute care space, she said. The existing 59 beds at Victoria General Hospital have been operating at capacity since the region consolidated its focus on sub-acute patients in October, she said.

In the mean time, there are fewer seniors left languishing in Winnipeg hospitals, the WHRA said.

“We have seen a continued decrease in seniors waiting in hospitals for a personal-care home (placement),” said Williams. “Right now, there’s nine patients waiting… In previous years, we had 70 to 100 patients waiting… This is a really significant improvement.”

Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen told reporters he’s cautiously optimistic.

“It is early,” he said. “I’m sure there are going to be ups and downs and bumps on the road. We have to sustain that, and sustain it over a longer period of time.”

Goertzen said the St. Boniface emergency services are still being built up, expansion of the Grace Hospital ER is still underway, and he does not yet know when the Seven Oaks and Concordia emergency rooms will close, or which will close first.

“We’re hopeful that in May, we’ll be able to provide those times lines” on Seven Oaks and Concordia, the Tory minister said. “I know there is a degree of anxiety within the system, I recognize that.”

On Tuesday, NDP Leader Wab Kinew allowed, “Year over year, the numbers show progress.”

However, Kinew said, the month-over-month since the Victoria ER and Misericordia Health Centre urgent care closed show wait times creeping up again.

– with files from Nick Martin

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca