Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) has seen a big jump in COVID-19 positive patients in the last 24 hours.
“Today, we have 61 COVID-19 positive patients at RVH. Just to put that in perspective, this is up from yesterday by 10,” RVH president Janice Skot told BarrieToday on Friday afternoon.
Sixteen of those patients are currently in the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) and 14 are on ventilators, she said.
“One month ago, we were caring for three COVID-positive patients. The escalation is very quick," Skot said. “We are certainly at a crossroads and a tipping point for hospitals. The pandemic is more than a year old, but the third wave is like nothing we’ve seen before, and truly never really wanted to imagine, either.”
RVH currently has three COVID units open on its third floor to deal with the rapidly increasing number of patients they are treating, not just locally, but also patients that have been transferred from other facilities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)
“As they try to load balance, we’ve accepted 160 patients (from the beginning of the pandemic) from those overburdened GTA hospitals,” said Skot, adding 50 of those patients have come in the last two weeks alone. “We are finding the patients are getting younger, getting sick faster and for longer, and many of them are ending up in the ICU.”
As of April 23, of the 61 COVID positive patients at RVH, 37 of them are from the GTA hospitals, Skot noted.
“To create capacity, we’ve had to transfer our stable medicine and alternate level of care patients to other hospitals. In the last two weeks, we’ve also transferred out 60 patients to other hospitals in Simcoe-Muskoka, Owen Sound, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury," she said. "There’s also a special new unit that’s being opened at the Toronto Congress Centre that’s being offered by Toronto Grace and we’ve sent patients there, too.
"We are trying to maximize every bed in the system.”
The creation of the hospital’s pandemic relief unit (PRU) has cared for 540 patients in it since it opened in November 2020, Skot noted, adding it’s currently being utilized to treat 22 patients. While the creation and operation of the PRU allowed the Barrie hospital to free up beds within its walls, it has faced some staffing challenges, which Skot is happy to say is changing.
“I am pleased to say that this week, we’ve had 16 people from five different regions in the province from Home and Community Care (via the Local Heaoth Integration Network, or LHIN) that have volunteered to come to RVH. They were oriented on Wednesday and this is allowing us to open more beds in the PRU," she said.
By the time those individuals are fully oriented and more staff have been added, the PRU will be able to operate 45 of the 70 beds, Skot said.
“The PRU has been invaluable in freeing up beds in the hospital and enabling us to accept these transfers from other areas of the GTA," she said. "It’s a great way to provide some breathing room for the patients to be able to move there before they’re discharged.”
So much has changed over the course of the pandemic, noted Skot, adding changes are happening daily within the hospital.
“What I am most impressed about with team RVH is, despite the fatigue of this pandemic they’re constantly innovating and coming up with new ideas," she said. "We are learning new information, even just about the disease, and that can change the way we work.”
A good example of that, she says, is their critical care plan.
“Normally, (RVH) operates 16 ICU beds,” said Skot, explaining the plan allows the hospital to increase that to 37. “We are constantly evolving based on the needs not just of the region, but also of the GTA.”
An increased focus on personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as working in partnership with other local health agencies, has also been positive change Skot has witnessed.
Despite those positives, she is well aware of the toll this pandemic has taken on everyone at RVH.
“I know the hospital staff and physicians are very tired. They are stressed. Burnout in health care across the world, for sure in Ontario and definitely in Barrie, is happening. I just keep asking our team to dig a little deeper so we can be here for everyone," Skot said.
The RVH president is also pleading with the community to do its part as well.
“If we are going to be here for everyone, then please abide by the stay-at-home order. We will always be here for you if you need us, but what you can do is stay at home and follow all the public health safety measures the government has asked us to do,” she said. “The next few weeks are going to be more difficult for Ontario and even though the immunization program is up and running, and we know there are brighter days ahead, we can’t immunize our way out of this particular wave.
“If we are going to dig down deeper… then I need you to do your part. Stay home, stay the course, follow all the public health safety measures and then we can all get through this together," Skot said.
