SAH is recruiting three much-needed specialists; hopes for a balanced end to fiscal year 2021-22
The Sault Area Hospital operates despite reports of COVID-positive staff, and its physicians monitor COVID-positive patients in the intensive care unit.
“I’m pleased to announce after a few turbulent weeks at the hospital that we are seeing some improvement in our COVID-free staff absence,” said Sue Roger, SAH’s vice president of clinical operations and chief executive officer, addressing the board of directors. SAH in its monthly meeting is held almost on Monday.
More than 80 employees have left COVID recently, Roger said on board.
“We are seeing staff recovery, which is helping significantly.”
Roger said four SAH units had survived COVID outbreaks since the last board meeting in March.
These units are Transition House – a rehabilitation home providing 24-hour supportive care for adults diagnosed with severe mental illness – as well as 3B, 3C and 1B.
Transition House is out of the hearth, while 3B and 3C are due to leave the hearth on May 1.
1B has up to seven COVID-positive patients since Monday, and the unit is expected to leave the outbreak on May 3.
“There’s a lot in the news about the intensive care unit numbers,” Roger said.
There were 214 patients in the intensive care unit across the province on Monday, 24 in northern Ontario and four in the SAH, Roger said.
“We did very well during the pandemic period with this type of patient in our intensive care unit, so we expect full recovery for all these patients.”
Roger said there were no problems with the “supply of critical drugs”, but that there were other problems in the supply chain that the organization was facing.
“So, we are diligent with the work we do, especially with our PPE and our disposable equipment. We just make sure we keep moving forward, but there are certainly some hiccups along the way, “Roger said.
Of the more than 80 SAH employees recently absent due to COVID, Roger said “not all units are affected”
“We seem to have a concentration of COVID-positive patients in the intensive care unit and then, when they recovered, 3A or the operating room was flooded with a COVID-related absence. Today we have 66 absences, but they are in the whole organization. It seems that every department, whether clinical, supportive, non-clinical, administrative, has certainly had people on and off the site in recent weeks. The contacts of the households were very closely monitored, especially after the children returned to school. “
Staff are encouraged to call for their health and take quick tests at home to make sure they are negative before going to work.
“We do not have to move to a critical model of staff, where some organizations do it, where asymptomatic positive employees had to come to work. We have not done this in this community. We didn’t need a meeting. We had a very tight staff, to be honest, in almost every department in the organization, extending working hours for employees who are willing to work. “Sometimes I feel like a patchwork quilt day after day, but we’ve managed to maintain all the services and we haven’t closed anything to our patients,” Roger said.
“It’s been two long years and it seems that for the most part we’ve been extremely happy at the hospital in the Salt area,” said Sharon Kirkpatrick, chairman of the SAH board.
In other hospital news:
New specialists are coming to SAH.
The hospital successfully appointed two urologists and a gastroenterologist. All three specialists are expected to be at Sault and work until September.
A general surgeon is leaving SAH, but is actively recruiting for a replacement. Eleven candidates from across North America were interviewed.
SAH administrators are still preparing the hospital’s budget for 2022-23, said Lisa Bell-Murray, vice chairman of the board.
The financial results for February 2022 show a deficit of just over $ 400,000 for SAH, compared to the planned budget deficit of just under $ 5 million.
This much better-than-expected result is mainly due to COVID-related provincial funding to compensate for volume-based funding, as the hospital was unable to perform certain procedures due to COVID constraints in the past fiscal year.
“We expect to have a balanced position as we approach and finalize the end of the year on March 31,” Bell-Murray said.
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