The number of Horizon hospital beds occupied by people awaiting long-term care has reached a record high, pushing occupancy rates to crisis levels, officials warned Thursday.
And the situation is only expected to get worse with an “imminent surge” of ER visits and hospital admissions during the respiratory season, Greg Doiron, vice-president of clinical operations, told the quarterly board meeting in Fredericton.
Horizon has struggled for years with so-called alternate level of care, or ALC patients languishing in hospital beds while they wait for a nursing home or special care home bed, or in-home services.
Last month, the board asked the executive leadership team to come up with solutions to try to get ahead of the capacity challenges before the peak respiratory season.
Only 10 Fredericton ER beds available
To illustrate the current impact ALC patients are having, Doiron cited the example of the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton, where only 10 of 30 emergency beds were available, as of Thursday. “That’s if you come in with a heart attack or a broken arm,” he said.
The remaining 20 were occupied by patients who had been admitted to hospital but were waiting for a bed because they were all occupied.
About 42 per cent of beds at the Chalmers Hospital — 40 per cent Horizon-wide — are occupied by ALC patients, Doiron said.
Sometimes the space they’re going to is a hallway, a storage room, » Read More
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