Sudbury reduces hospital ALC problem -- by opening new beds

As part of the recent public relations campaign by Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), the CEO of the Northeast LHIN, Louise Paquette, has told Northern Life that they have reduced the number of alternate level of care patients in the four largest northeast hospitals by half.

The article discusses in more detail the situation in Sudbury. Here the hospital says the number of alternate level of care (ALC) patients has fallen from a high of 190 to 210 ALC patients to just 91 ALC patients. That would mean a reduction of somewhere between 99 and 119 ALC patients.

Sounds impressive, right? Well here's the interesting part. The hospital CEO credits the reduction to the opening of 116 long term care beds at St. Gabriel's and Pioneer Manor.

The government is practically allergic to opening new beds in hospitals or LTC facilities no matter how much the demand. So, this solution is definitely not typical.

And notably, the numbers suggest that the government's much bragged about ALC strategy ('Aging at Home' or as some call it, 'Aging Alone') did not play a major role.

In fact, other factors (like the Aging at Home) may have actually added 17 patients to the hospital ALC rolls: i.e. a reduction of only 99 ALC patients in the hospital despite the addition of 116 LTC beds.

This is more evidence that new beds are going to have to be a significant part of the solution to the hospital overload problem -- along, of course, with more public home care services.

Comments

More spending on new hospitals and new beds? Nope

Hospital funding: There is something off about the provincial government's Budget claims on hospital capital funding (funding to build and renovate hospital beds and facilities). For what it is worth (which is not that much, given the long time frame the government cites), the province claims it will increase hospital capital spending over the next 10 years from $11 billion to $20 billion – or on average to about $2 billion per year. But, this is just a notional increase from the previous announcement of future hospital capital spending. Moreover, even if we did take this as a serious promise and not just a wisp of smoke, the government's own reports shows they have actually funded hospital infrastructure about $3 billion a year over the 2011/12-2015/16 period. So this “increase” is really a decrease from past actual spending. Even last year's (2016-17) hospital capital funding increase was reported in this Budget at $2.3 billion - i.e. about ...

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data. This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization. Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion. That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year. The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million. In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations...

The hospital crisis: No capacity, no plan, no end

While Canada has achieved universal public healthcare coverage, that does not mean conservative forces have given up trying to erode that coverage and expand corporate care where it does not currently exist. The battle has become particularly intense in Ontario under the Ford Progressive Conservative government, which is implementing serious cuts to the level of care and moving to bring in for-profit mini-hospitals. Inadequate Staﬃng. Less and less of hospital spending is on staff. Employee compensation as a share of hospital expenditures has consistently shrunk in Ontario. This is not some immutable law of hospital development. It is in stark contrast with the rest of Canada, where compensation has become a larger share and now accounts for 67.1%. Hospitals in provinces other than Ontario now have 18 percent more staﬀ per capita than hospitals in Ontario. Overall, if Ontario had the same staﬃng capacity as the other provinces and territories, there would be another...

Defend Public Healthcare

Search This Blog