Funding squeeze to force patients out of hospital quicker

With a new record of alternate level of care (ALC) patients in acute care beds, Health Sciences North is now focusing on getting patients out of hospital sooner.

The hospital administrator David McNeil said the focus will be on shortening the time patients are in hospital to below the "expected standards." Nine beds could essentially have been "created" last fiscal year if lengths of stay had been shorter, McNeil told the Sudbury Star.

The Sudbury fire department has also refused the hospital's request to store patients in hallways, citing the fire hazard. The hospitial however will continue to keep patients in shower rooms, television lounges and linen rooms, places which do not break the fire code, apparently.

The hospital was forced to close 30 alternative level of care beds this past March. Another 30 are scheduled to close next March. Murray Martin has now been called in by the North East LHIN to do a 'peer review' of the hospital and help it cope with the bed crisis.

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