Health Sciences North is taking added measures in order to free up as much bed space as possible at the Ramsey Lake Health Centre in preparation for a potential surge in COVID-19 cases.
The hospital had its first admitted COVID-19 patient on March 29, when a woman in her 50s attended the emergency department and was flagged through enhanced screening.
HSN president and CEO Dominic Giroux held a teleconference on April 1 to brief the media on measures being taken by the hospital, as well as provided an update on the woman's condition.
"The patient was admitted to our respiratory unit on the sixth floor of our south tower, she is in stable condition and is not receiving critical care," said Giroux. "I want to convey how proud I am of our frontline care providers. They have prepared diligently for this over the past few weeks, they have followed all the required precautions and protocols regarding infection prevention and control, also for the assessment of the patient and the testing of the patient."
The hospital has been taking a number of measures over the past month, including cancelling elective surgeries, in order to free up as much bed space as possible. As of April 1, HSN has 327 admitted patients, down from 529 on March 5. Health Sciences North has also been reviewing its pandemic plans to expand its critical care beds from 41 to 102.
HSN currently has 62 ventilators across its units, with more on order and the ability to access more ventilators from the provincial Critical Care Command Table.
The first three areas identified for critical care COVID-19 patients at HSN are the Intensive Care Unit for the first 15 patients, followed by the Cardio Vascular Thoracic unit for COVID patients number 16 to 29, and the Cardiac Medical Unit for COVID patients number 30 to 41.
Non-COVID patients who would normally have gone to these units would be cared for in other parts of HSN.
Giroux explained Wednesday that the hospital has been working with the Clarion Hotel on Elm Street and secured three storeys of the hotel in order to accommodate up to 95 patients.
"This surge plan has been approved by the regional table for COVID-19 and is supported by Ontario Health, it will be a partnership between Health Sciences North, the Northeast LHIN, the St. Joe's Health Centre in Sudbury and primary care," said Giroux.
"We have the ability to provide care for up to 95 patients on three storeys of the Clarion Hotel and we have identified the priority population that would receive care at that location. The first priority would be our ALC (Alternative Level Care) patients who are waiting for assisted living, and we would also prioritize our ALC patients who are waiting for support at home or waiting bedded rehabilitation.
"The last priority patient population for transfer would be our ALC patients who are waiting for long-term care."
While the hospital has only had one person admitted with COVID-19, Giroux stressed they cannot be over-prepared when it comes to this pandemic. Health Sciences North has the capacity to expand its number of critical care beds up to 102, and those will be rolled out as the need presents itself.
"The plans that have been developed for the expansion of critical care will be unfolded as the number of positive COVID-19 patients increases among those who need critical care," said Giroux.
"It has a cascading effect and that's why we're taking preventative measures now to continue the transfer of patients outside of Ramsey Lake Health Centre to the community as of Monday to allow for that expansion of critical care beds to unfold in a timely way, as the number of the COVID-19 patients should increase."
The hospital's CEO ensured the community that there will be beds set aside for critical care patients who are not COVID-19 cases.
"Within that critical care bed compliment, some beds will be required for non-COVID patients who require critical care and we've set aside 27 of those 102 beds for critical care for those patients," said Giroux. "This will be refined as with the various phases of the critical care expansion."
