N.B. grants Horizon Health 30 days for nursing home placement prioritization

Horizon Health received permission to discharge some patients in N.B. hospitals to free up space.

New Brunswick’s Department of Social Development has granted Horizon Health Network “critical state admission prioritization status.” The move means patients with no medical need for care at four regional hospitals will be bumped to the top of the list for long-term care beds for the next 30 days.

Alternate Level of Care (ALC) patients at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, the Saint John Regional Hospital, the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville, and the Miramichi Regional Hospital will be bumped up to the top of the wait list for available beds in long-term care (LTC).

According to Horizon, there are over 650 patients at their hospitals who do not need acute care but cannot be discharged as they are waiting for beds elsewhere. If more beds were readily available, the health agency says more then half of those patients would immediately be out the door.

Around 40 per cent of acute care beds in Horizon facilities are take by people who have no medical reason to still be at the hospital.

“We do not want anyone to think that they are not a priority,” Social Development Minister Cindy Miles told reporters Wednesday.

“We will do all we can to support this process and moving forward as quickly as we can in the areas that we’ve identified, and the folks in community, we will do all we can to make sure that you’re getting the support and the services that you need.”

According to Social Development, nursing home admissions are normally done chronologically.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Horizon Health Network President and CEO Margaret Melanson was pleased to hear the request was granted in a timely matter. After the initial 30 days, she says the need for prioritization status will be evaluated.

“This number is occurring in July, when we would typically see numbers peak more traditionally during the fall period,” Melanson notes.

“Therefore, in order to prepare adequately for bed availability during a flu season, for example, we needed to act now with this particular emergency order to ensure that we would have hopefully some bed capacity in planning for the fall period.”

Melanson is hopeful to move around 20 people out of both the Saint John and Fredericton Hospitals, and a little less for the other two centres.

The goal would still leave hundreds waiting in hospital, but officials note there are just not enough LTC beds available.

To solve the issue long-term, Melanson says she will continue to collaborate with both social development and the health department.

“When we have admitted patients who are needing to be cared for in a hallway, a dining room and other nontraditional spaces, I believe we can all agree that this is not high quality care.”

Speaking to CTV Atlantic ahead of the province decision, New Brunswick Nurses Union President Paula Doucet was pleased to see Horizon make the request.

She says nurses are continuing to battle working in overcrowded conditions and having to treat patients outside of a typical hospital room.

Doucet adds whatever decision is made to address the issue long term, all parties need to be at the table.

“It’s really difficult to come up with an answer that’s going to solve every problem, especially when we’re in a crisis,” she says.

“But obviously involving the input from the frontline staff, multiple stakeholders and all of those different departments, I think will go a long way.”

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