A policy change that was quietly introduced in Manitoba hospitals sees non-COVID patients being admitted to hospital wards that have active foci of the virus.
To free up emergency care capacity and reduce the number of patients in the emergency department waiting for a hospital bed, administrators changed the guidelines for the outbreak in January, two months before the province lifted all public restrictions on COVID-19.
As of last week, Shared Health said there were two designated hospital wards for COVID-19, one in Winnipeg and one in Brandon. All patients are examined on admission. Those who tested positive were grouped together or with recovered patients with COVID-19; those with suspected cases of virus are isolated until the results are confirmed.
A statement from Treena Slate, Prairie Mountain Health’s regional head of acute care, said that patients with active COVID would not be placed in patients who were not infected with the virus.
“Patients who have tested positive for COVID but are no longer considered infectious (ie recovered from COVID) can be transferred to a general ward if necessary,” Slate said. “This guide allows for an increase in local emergency care capacity and is supported by advice from infection prevention and control experts.”
Patients who have active or suspected COVID infections are not necessarily admitted to designated wards, but will be accommodated according to provincial guidelines, which can be found here.
However, Slate said the transmission of COVID to the community has increased over the past few weeks and there have been a number of outbreaks in PMH and emergency departments. These facilities will follow the outbreak management guidelines to ensure safe patient care and limit virus transmission.
When an outbreak is declared in a unit, infection prevention and control processes shall be implemented immediately, with measures to monitor the number of staff and increase them if necessary.
“All of these measures reduce the risk of COVID infection for patients receiving outpatient care,” she said.
PMH could not confirm where COVID patients were housed at Brandon Regional Health Center.
A Shared Health spokesman said in a comment to Winnipeg Free Press on Thursday that hospitals were not tracking the number of patients who had been transferred to outpatient wards.
The guidelines issued to health personnel on January 13 said that it was not always possible to avoid admitting patients without COVID-19 to outbreak areas, especially if those patients needed care in a specialized ward.
The policy recommends that healthcare professionals avoid placing unvaccinated patients, patients over 60 years of age or immunocompromised patients in outpatient wards due to their increased risk of serious COVID-19 infection. It is also not ideal, the guide says, to place new patients in wards that have uncontrolled or newly declared outbreaks.
Shared Health also said that patients with active cases of COVID are kept separate from patients who have never been infected with the virus but can be kept at a distance in the same common ward.
The provincial health management organization did not refer to the January note, instead referring to a more detailed protocol, updated on March 29, which is linked to the January 13 guidelines.
A January note from Shared Health showed a change in practice from earlier pandemic protocols aimed at keeping non-COVID patients away from active outbreaks.
“It should be expected that epidemics in wards and / or establishments will increase in frequency and cannot be prevented. The approach outlined here is to allow a balance between staff / patient / resident safety, while maximizing our emergency care capacity and allowing ongoing delivery of comprehensive coordinated patient care. Emergency medical facilities can no longer stop admission to a ward / outpatient facility, ”the January 13 shared health note said.
The note came a day before Prime Minister Heather Stephenson spoke publicly about the need for Manitoba people to learn to live with the virus.
This policy change is not seen as balanced or good for patients, families or nursing staff. In a statement to the Sun, the Manitoba Nurses’ Union condemned the policy change as another example of Manitoba’s health care system failing to safely and effectively manage COVID infections.
“With the continued spread of COVID throughout the system, Manitoba is no longer able to cohort COVID-positive patients together, in separate units and separately from non-COVID patients,” the statement said. “This poses a significant risk, given that COVID remains, despite the government’s wishes and proclamations, capable of producing very serious – and even fatal – results for the immunocompromised and those with other health conditions.
The statement also said that highly contagious variants of COVID were already infecting a declining number of nurses and nurses. Remaining healthy staff should change PPE more frequently when switching between COVID and non-COVID patients. This creates an unstable workload and further delays in providing timely patient care.
This policy change does not reflect what the government is saying to the public or front-line employees about their commitment to improving health in the province, the union said.
“Despite billboards and press releases, in the end, those many Manitobans who need proper healthcare are the ones who pay the highest price, and this latest change is another in a long series of unpleasant consequences that land right on top of each other. the shoulders of the Manitobans and those who care for them in this broken system. ”
The provincial epidemiological report for the period from 17 to 23 April shows that the percentage of positive tests is increasing for those who receive laboratory-confirmed PCR results. An average of 955 manitobanes received PCR tests per day, and the test positive rate was 23.4 percent, up from 19 percent a week earlier.
-With files from Winnipeg Free Press
>> kmckinley@brandonsun.com
>> Twitter: @ karenleighmcki1
Add Comment