Rural hospitals responding to high number of Code Orange calls

Rural hospitals dealing with Code Oranges Rural hospitals face unique challenges when it comes to Code Oranges. Stefanie Davis reports.

The province has seen multiple Code Orange emergencies called over the past few months.

In some cases, the emergencies have happened in remote areas, and rural hospitals have needed to respond. It can be a challenge for the healthcare centres to gather the resources they need in an emergency.

A Code Orange is any disaster — ranging from floods and power outages to a mass casualty car crash.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority says the number of Code Orange calls to rural hospitals in the past few months is rare.

“You tell a small community you’re coming in with 10 to 20 critical patients, they’re overwhelmed with one,” said Anthony Huckabay, southeast area manager of emergency preparedness with the SHA.

The Humboldt Broncos bus crash near Tisdale on April 6 left 16 people dead and 13 others injured. Last week, a horse drawn wagon crashed close to Esterhazy. Fifteen people were injured.

Both of these cases were called a Code Orange.

Some patients were sent to rural hospitals and others to urban centres. The SHA says smaller hospitals face more challenges than urban centres in mass casualty situations.

“In a rural centre, you’re in a small area, you have very limited resources,” Huckabay said. “You don’t have as many people you can call in and you try to manage with what you can.”

In larger hospitals in Regina or Saskatoon, a Code Orange is paged to the whole hospital and resources are already nearby. But in rural centres, personnel may need to be called from surrounding communities.

“People within a community are all willing to step up within their profession to help out in the best way they can,” Huckabay said.

The government says amalgamating the health regions will be beneficial for the entire province.

“The health authority is looking at different regions, what their policies and procedures would have been up until this point, and responding to the ones we’ve seen recently as well, to make sure we have a high-quality standard across the province,” said Greg Ottenbreit, Minister Responsible for Rural and Remote Health.

According to Huckabay, the recent Code Oranges in the province have been successful. But, they’ve also been a learning tool for everyone involved to help the staff prepare for emergencies in the future.

Based on a report by CTV Yorkton's Stefanie Davis