Patient dies in waiting room at Winnipeg hospital

Patient death at HSC under investigation Shared Health is investigating the death of a patient in the HSC emergency department waiting room. Taylor Brock has more.

An investigation is underway after a patient waiting for care died in the waiting room at a Winnipeg hospital Tuesday morning.

According to Dr. Shawn Young, the chief operating officer of Health Sciences Centre (HSC), the patient arrived shortly after midnight in the emergency department.

“The patient was assessed, triaged, and directed to wait in the waiting room and to let staff know if their conditions change or worsen,” Young said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

Young said the patient was reassessed while in the waiting room, but just before 8 a.m., staff noted the patient’s condition had “significantly worsened.”

“Medical interventions subsequently occurred and the patient was transported to a resuscitation room. He was unfortunately declared deceased a short time later,” Young said in a statement.

During a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Young said the emergency department had roughly 100 patients in the department overnight, and roughly 50 at the time of the incident.

“It’s not completely abnormal,” he said. “Typically, we’re in the 70s and 80s, and sometimes 90s. We do get up to 100 from time to time.”

Young said there were several high-acuity patients in the emergency department at the time, along with others looking to seek shelter from the cold weather, which impacts patient surveillance. Staffing was near baseline levels, he said.

Young said the patient was a middle-aged male and a “low-acuity patient” when he was initially triaged and assessed but could not provide other details about their condition or what they were seeking treatment for.

Wait times are longer for low-acuity patients compared to high-acuity patients, and they should be reassessed every couple of hours, Young said.

As of 4 pm. Tuesday, patients will be waiting an average of eight hours for treatment at the HSC’s adult emergency department.

Young said a “thorough gathering of information” is now underway to determine what happened, and will include examining medical charts and security video.

'Our system is in crisis': union

The Manitoba Nurses’ Union (MNU) said it is saddened to hear about the death and said it should serve as a wake-up call for people in charge of health care.

“These critical failures in our health-care system are not isolated; they are symptoms of a system stretched beyond its limits,” MNU president Darlene Jackson said in a written statement. “Following the inquest into Brian Sinclair's death, we learned how profoundly these events traumatize staff and impact trust in our health-care institutions. It is heartbreaking to see similar tragedies continue to occur.”

Brian Sinclair, a double amputee, died in the HSC waiting room in 2008 while waiting 34 hours to be treated for a blocked catheter. His death resulted in an inquest and a change in procedures after it was determined he spoke with a triage aide when he arrived there, but was never formally entered into the hospital system.

“The leadership at HSC and within the Minister of Health’s office must work tirelessly to uncover the root causes of this failure and implement immediate and sustainable solutions. Our system is in crisis, and the time for action is long overdue."

-with files from The Canadian Press