The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said Friday that changes to the health system have helped manage a particularly tough and early flu season.
New numbers from the WRHA show median ER wait times were maintained at 1.6 hours over December 2017 and the first two weeks of January 2018. The region said that is a 24 percent improvement over last year’s flu season.
“Our improved ability to work together as a system to assess, treat and accommodate patients quickly played an enormous role in maintaining our improvement over a similar timeframe last year, even with the impact of a difficult flu season,” said Lori Lamont, acting WRHA COO in a press release.
“Changes related to consolidation allowed us to mobilize immediately to address the increased demands that influenza placed on emergency services and in-patient beds throughout the region. And the individual contributions of our front-line staff ensured that patients continued to receive excellent care.”
To deal with the influx of patients, around 140 beds were opened up for flu patients. About half of them were beds normally used for surgical patients. So far, 97 non-urgent surgeries have been cancelled, but the WRHA says more than half have already been rebooked.
“The region is now operating at full capacity and is no longer required to postpone elective surgeries,” added Lamont. “Patients can be assured that their postponed procedures will be rescheduled as quickly as possible.”
Another factor, said Lamont, is the number of patients waiting in hospital to be placed in personal care homes.
Currently, the WRHA said there is a record low. Right now there are nine, and at this time last year there were 78.
“In my entire time with the region - this is the shortest that list has ever been,” said Lamont. “Not only is the list shorter, but the length of stay for those patients waiting, has also been shortened.”
The region credits this to Transitional Care, the Priority Home program and Rapid Response Nursing. All three are designed to get patients into home-like settings quicker and in a safe way to avoid re-admissions.
NDP health critic Andrew Swan is concerned about these numbers.
“What is strange is that we’ve got a health authority which appears to be under direction to sift through the data and cherry pick the things that they think are going to positive outcomes, where there is some doubt to whether there are positive outcomes at all,” he said.
New provincial Flu Watch numbers were also released Friday from Manitoba Health. The weekly report showed a slight decrease in the number of lab confirmed influenza A cases week over week. In the second week of 2018 there are 168 cases, down from 170 the week before.
But medical officer of health Dr. Richard Rusk said we’re not out of the woods quite yet.
“We still have that 7 to potentially 14 days that these people are sick and they will be presenting to the acute care system,” he said.
Rusk also said there is the potential for the number of influenza B cases to continue to rise, but he added that this year’s vaccine is a very close match for that particular strain.
